The Bundeswehr or the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Germany is ramping-up the staffing of its newly organized "Kommando Cyber- und Informationsraum" (Kdo CIR), which will conduct offensive and defensive cyber operations against threat-states, especially Russia and China.

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Kommando Cyber- und Informationsraum, which translates into Cyber and Information Space Command or CIS, became operational on April 1.

Kdo CIR takes command of all the Bundeswehr's existing cyber, IT, military intelligence, geo-information, and operative communication units. Its commander is Major General Ludwig Leinhos.

Kdo CIR  is to be staffed by 13,500 soldiers from the Bundeswehr and by civilian employees. This number will be met by 2021 but is being sped-up because of the unremitting number of cyberattacks being launched by Russia every day.

The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said the federal government's computer networks, excluding that of the Bundeswehr, were struck by 20 highly specialized attacks every day in 2016. That number is expected to rise this year.

As a response to this unremitting pace of cyberattacks, German intelligence agencies and the BSI began organizing their own special cyber response teams.

Kdo CIR, which is based in Bonn, will initially have a staff of 260. That number is to be expanded to 13,500 in July, by which time staff from other branches of the Bundeswehr involved in cyber operations will have been joined the CIS.

The Bundeswehr is recruiting IT specialists on the open market; from its other services and from the new cyber cluster at its university in Munich.

Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Kdo CIR will defend Germany against cyber attacks but must also be capable of launching their own cyberattacks against hackers and state actors.

She described attacks from cyberspace as, "a growing threat to our security."

The vital importance of Kdo CIR is such it's considered a separate armed service of the Bundeswehr on par with the five other services.

These services consist of the Heer (the Federal German Army); the Luftwaffe (the Federal German Air Force); the Marine (the Federal German Navy); the Streitkräftebasis (Joint Support Service) and the Zentraler Sanitätsdienst (Joint Medical Service).

In recognition of their being part of a new service, Kdo CIR soldiers are authorized to wear a grey beret.