National Guard Cyber Unit coming to S.A. (San Antonio Express-News)

San Antonio has been chosen for one of the National Guard’s 13 new cyber units.

The decision was celebrated by U.S. Reps. Will Hurd, Joaquín Castro, Henry Cuellar and Lamar Smith, all of whom requested “Cyber City, USA” be considered for the new units.

“The cyber threats our nation faces are real and it makes me enormously proud to see my hometown at the forefront of this ongoing battle,” Hurd said in a news release.

Army Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, announced the units last week, saying, the cyber squadrons and teams “will provide trained and ready soldiers and airmen to support requirements established by the services and U.S. Cyber Command.”

Seven new Army Guard cyber protection teams will be activated across Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin; adding to the four previously announced teams spread across California, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan and Ohio.

In partnership with the Air Force, the Air Guard will activate four new cyber operations squadrons in Idaho, Michigan, Texas and Virginia. There also will be a cyber Information Surveillance Reconnaissance squadron in California and a cyber intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, group in Massachusetts.

Air Force Col. Kelly Hughes, chief of the Space and Cyber Warfare Operations Division at the Air National Guard Readiness Center, said the rollout was “just the beginning.”

“This is a massive amount of force structure the Guard has laid into the mission, but this is just the first layer,” Hughes said.

Hughes said that the focus of the current activation plan “is to get that presence in as many states as possible and especially making sure we have all the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) regions covered.”

The FEMA tie-in fits the Guard’s mission to respond to large-scale emergencies and disasters at home and gives state governors another response asset to use as needed, said Air Force Col. Timothy Lunderman, director of joint cyber operations at the National Guard.

The units are expected to be online by the end of fiscal year 2019.

San Antonio’s will complement a military cybersecurity presence that includes the 24th and 25th Air Force and NSA-Texas as well as the University of Texas-San Antonio’s top ranked cybersecurity program and a number of private sector cybersecurity firms.