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US Air Force Space Command has said that its second 'cyberspace weapon system' is now fully operational.

It said that last month its Cyberspace Vulnerability Assessment/Hunter weapon system (CVA/H) reached 'full operational capability' status. CVA/H is a set of security software that is designed to find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess advanced persistent threats to air force missions.

Achieving full operational status means the system is fully capable to serve as a defense system for traffic on the air force information network. The CVA/H weapon system enables execution of vulnerability assessments, adversary threat detection, and compliance evaluations, the air force said.

Military systems are under constant attack by hackers of all types, and as well as developing their offensive capabilities, the military have been trying to build up their digital defences too.

"The CVA/H weapon system provides a cyberspace security capability offering in-depth assessment of information system assets such as computers, infrastructure, applications, data, and cyberspace operations," Air Force Space Command said.

'Weapons system' is a term used by the military to identify critical resources -- but doesn't mean that the particular system is an actual weapon as defined by the Department of Defense.

The CVA/H is the second air force weapon system to become fully operational: the first was the Air Force Intranet Control Weapon (AFINC) system in January, which serves as the top-level defensive boundary and entry point for all network traffic into the air force network, controlling the flow of all external and inter-base traffic.

The AFINC is operated by the 26th Network Operations Squadron, which typically will block more than one billion instances of suspicious network traffic each week.

Other cyberspace weapon systems in development include the Air Force Cyberspace Defense Weapon System, the Cyber Security and Control System Weapon System, the Cyber Command and Control Mission System Weapon System, and the Cyberspace Defense Analysis Weapon System.

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