With the new year upon us, here’s a round-up of some of the biggest tech and cybersecurity policy moves at the Department of Defense (DoD) in 2023 that have set the stage for the Pentagon’s IT priorities in 2024.
CJADC2 Progress
DoD said just before year-end 2003 that it is looking to provide a minimum viable capability (MVC) of Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) – one of the Pentagon’s top modernization priorities – to the Joint Force by the end of the year.
Further development of CJADC2 – a warfighting concept that aims to connect military assets including data sensors and other communications devices – across all warfighting domains, is one of the crown jewels in the Pentagon’s tech strategy. Look for much more to come in 2024.
Department of Navy Cyber Strategy
One of the service branches’ major policy moves that will shape the 2024 technology agenda is the U.S. Navy’s ‘Department of Navy Cyber Strategy’, which will identify seven distinct lines of effort to enhance the naval services’ cybersecurity posture and emphasize cyber as a warfighting domain.
The strategy includes efforts to improve and support the cyber workforce within the service branch, defend against enterprise IT attacks, and secure defense critical infrastructure and weapons systems.
“This inaugural strategy builds on years of lessons learned from cyber domain operations across the globe,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said. “We are focused on aggressively enhancing our cyber enterprise, while fostering cooperation and collaboration with our allies and partners.”
DISA FY2024 Watchlist
Another big set of policy priorities is embodied in the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) FY2024 tech watchlist, which the agency is focusing on as the new year begins to get underway.
High up on the tech watchlist are focuses on leveraging large language models and other AI tools for development and deployment, as well as exploring AI trust, risk, and security management to address concerns about adversary AI and secure commercial AI large language models.
The watchlist also calls for DISA to amplify its workforce by encompassing a “yin-yang relationship” between program and technical teams.
Pentagon Replicator Initiative
A closely watched priority at DoD going into 2024 is the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which will aim to roll out thousands of inexpensive autonomous systems to counter China’s growing military abilities.
One key aspect of the program will be to counter Chinese influence with large numbers of systems that can be developed, manufactured, and deployed quickly, while also taking steps to wrap new private sector firms into the process.
As part of this initiative, DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) will host a technology summit in early 2024 to share details about the initiative and how commercial technology can be used to adapt for military use.
OCONUS Cloud Capabilities
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) expanded cloud capabilities outside of the contiguous United States (OCONUS) in 2023, and that effort will only continue to grow in 2024.
“We’ve deployed the implementation of our Stratus environment in Hawaii … and we are quickly looking at other sites and other combatant commands to be able to extend our Stratus solution into,” said Korie Seville, the technical director for DISA’s Hosting and Compute Center (HaCC).
As part of the cloud service expansion, DISA has been partnering with the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) and U.S. Special Operations Command to launch the Joint Operational Edge (JOE) initiative, which is a commercial cloud OCONUS offering.
DoD Workforce Implementation Plan
The Pentagon released its workforce implementation plan halfway through 2023, which has set the foundation for enhancing its workforce to align with its cyber workforce strategy.
The plan focus on four key areas: identifying needs, recruiting, developing, and retaining talent.
“Our goal is to ensure we are not only finding and hiring a diverse group of highly skilled cyber professionals but also developing the tools, resources, and partnerships required to continue growing these individuals,” said Patrick Johnson, director for the department’s Workforce Innovation Directorate.
