Pentagon prepares to expand in-theater data processing pilot
The U.S. Defense Department is laying the groundwork to expand a pilot program started in 2023 to provide more data processing capabilities to military units operating outside of the U.S., according to a senior official in the Pentagon's Chief Information Office.
As combatant commands around the globe integrate more sensors and uncrewed systems, there's a growing need for computing and storage capabilities. The Joint Operational Edge, or JOE, cloud initiative aims to provide commanders with the computing capabilities they need to crunch the swaths of data those sensors are gathering and identify key intelligence insights.
In just over a year, the department has established JOE nodes in Japan, Hawaii and Guam, as well as several sites in Europe and Africa. Rob Vietmeyer, chief software officer for the DOD CIO, said the program is still in its infancy, but the Pentagon hopes to quickly expand the most needed capabilities in the coming years.
'We're working with the intelligence community, Joint Staff and combatant commands to build out these capabilities with our commercial partners,' he said during a panel at the Potomac Officers Club's annual Research and Development Summit in McLean, Virginia.
Vietmeyer told Defense News on the sidelines of the conference the department's current focus is on ensuring the capabilities it delivers through JOE are what combatant commands need and can use today. The vision is for JOE to be flexible and grow as needed based on demand. Over the next few years, the department plans to expand the number of nodes from the handful it operates today to around 20.
'We don't want to build out more infrastructure than what we can take advantage of,' he said. 'We're trying to keep this as an agile program and continue to build out based on where we're adding real value.'
Part of JOE's initial work has been to get these capabilities into the hands of users in the field — often referenced as 'the edge' in military parlance — so they can get a feel for how it works and could potentially benefit operations, Vietmeyer said.
Two areas where the program is seeing particular demand from users in the field are AI and graphics processing unit, or GPU, tools. A GPU is a circuit that processes images and other graphics.
Along with building out the necessary infrastructure, the JOE team — which includes partners in the Defense Information Systems Agency and U.S. Special Operations Command — is developing policies and working with vendors to craft procurement strategies for the effort. While the project is currently funded as an enterprise effort, Vietmeyer said it will eventually transition, at least in part, to a fee-for-service approach.
Supply chain security and risk management are key issues for the Defense Department as it builds out its edge computing architecture.
Leigh Method, currently performing the duties of deputy assistant secretary of defense for sustainment, said DOD has several initiatives to mitigate risk to its supply chain. Speaking alongside Vietmeyer at the R&D Summit, she highlighted the creation of a Supply Chain Risk Mitigation Integration Center.
Currently, the organization has just one employee, but the department intends for the center to grow over the next few years and look across the department to better understand and prioritize risk and develop strategies for reducing it.
Method also pointed to an initiative called Vendor Threat Mitigation, which aims to give combatant commanders visibility and market analysis into the companies they work with to access data processing tools.
She said the goal is to ensure DOD isn't inadvertently 'contracting with the enemy' and to give commanders the authorities they need to protect logistics capabilities.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump administration reviewing Biden-era submarine pact with Australia, UK
US President Donald Trump's administration has launched a formal review of former President Joe Biden's AUKUS defense pact with Australia and Britain to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, a US defense official said. Australia, which sees the submarines as critical to its own defense as tensions grow over China's expansive military buildup, said it remained committed to the project and looked forward to working closely with the US on the review. As well as causing alarm in Australia, the review could also throw a wrench in Britain's defense planning. AUKUS, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, is at the center of a planned expansion of Britain's submarine fleet. 'We are reviewing AUKUS as part of ensuring that this initiative of the previous administration is aligned with the President's America First agenda,' the US official said of the review, first reported by Financial Times. 'Any changes to the administration's approach for AUKUS will be communicated through official channels, when appropriate.' AUKUS was formed in 2021 to address worries about China's growing power. It envisages Australia acquiring up to five US Virginia-class submarines from 2032. Then, Britain and Australia would design and build a new class of submarine, with US assistance. The UK would take first delivery in the late 2030s, with delivery to Australia in the early 2040s. Before that, the US and Britain would start forward rotations of their submarines in 2027 out of an Australian naval base in Western Australia. Vocal skeptics among Trump's senior policy officials include Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's top policy adviser, who cautioned last year that submarines were a scarce, critical commodity, and US industry could not produce enough to meet American demand. Submarines would be central to US military strategy in any confrontation with China centered in the First Island Chain, running from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China's coastal seas. 'My concern is why are we giving away this crown jewel asset when we most need it,' Colby said last year. Only six countries operate nuclear-powered submarines: the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and India. A spokesperson for Australia Defense Minister Richard Marles said the US had informed Australia and the UK of the review. 'AUKUS will grow both US and Australian defense industry as well as generating thousands of new manufacturing jobs,' the spokesperson said. A British government spokesperson called AUKUS 'one of the most strategically important partnerships in decades' that also produces 'jobs and economic growth in communities across all three nations.' 'It is understandable that a new administration would want to review its approach to such a major partnership, just as the UK did last year,' the official said, adding that Britain will 'continue to work closely with the US and Australia … to maximize the benefits and opportunities' of AUKUS. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but one official told Reuters the Trump administration 'is regularly reviewing foreign agreements to ensure they align with the American people's interests – especially those initiated under the failed Biden foreign policy agenda.' US Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said AUKUS was 'critical to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific' and the administration should work to strengthen it and the US submarine industrial base. 'Anything less would play directly into China's hand,' said Kaine, who represents Virginia, where US submarines are built. AUKUS is Australia's biggest-ever defense project, with Canberra committing to spend A$368 billion ($240 billion) over three decades to the program, which includes billions of dollars of investment in the U.S. production base. On Tuesday, Britain announced plans to invest billions of pounds to upgrade its submarine industry, including at BAE Systems in Barrow and Rolls-Royce Submarines in Derby, to boost submarine production as announced in Britain's Strategic Defence Review. Under this, it will build up to 12 next-generation attack submarines of the model intended to be jointly developed by the UK, US and Australia under AUKUS. In the US Congress on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said 'we're having honest conversations with our allies' and added in reference to Australia: 'We want to make sure those capabilities are part of how they use them with their submarines, but also how they integrate with us as allies.' Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who signed a previous agreement to acquire French submarines shelved in favor of AUKUS, told CNBC last week it was 'more likely than not that Australia will not end up with any submarines at all, but instead, simply provide a large base in Western Australia for the American Navy and maintenance facilities there.' AUKUS expert John Lee at Washington's conservative Hudson Institute think tank said the Pentagon review was aimed at determining whether it could afford to sell up to five submarines when it was not meeting its own production targets. Kathryn Paik, a Biden White House official now at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said providing submarines to Australia would not sacrifice US readiness but instead boost collective deterrence. 'This review most definitely makes our allies in Canberra and London concerned, and could cause them to doubt US reliability as an ally and partner,' she said.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pentagon cancels procuring M10 Booker combat vehicles due to 'current world events'
(Reuters) -The Pentagon on Wednesday said it would cancel plans to procure M10 Booker combat vehicles that it had agreed to in a 2022 contract with General Dynamics Land Systems "in response to current world events." "The Army will request to reallocate the remaining funds in fiscal 2025 to accelerate fielding of war-winning capabilities and anticipates additional significant savings to be fully realized within the next 18-24 months," the Pentagon said in a statement.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pentagon to review US role in AUKUS submarine pact
The Pentagon is reviewing America's role in a historic, multibillion-dollar pact among Washington, the United Kingdom and Australia to ward off China's growing influence. The widely supported deal calls on the three countries to jointly develop hypersonic weapons and nuclear-powered submarines, a unique security partnership that could strengthen seapower gaps in the Pacific and produce transformative new weapons. Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby — who has expressed skepticism about the program's worth — is running the review, according to two defense officials, granted anonymity to discuss internal policy talks. 'This is an opportunity for the [Defense Department] to ensure the effort is in alignment with the Trump administration's priorities,' one of the officials said. The Biden administration inked the deal, known as AUKUS, four years ago. The people did not say how the Trump administration could tweak the massive package of cooperative efforts or when officials would make a decision. But the agreement appears to have the backing of numerous lawmakers and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who expressed support for it during his confirmation hearing. The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment. The Financial Times first reported the review. Such assessments aren't entirely unusual. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer initiated a review of AUKUS after his election last year. A U.K. government spokesperson, granted anonymity to discuss the situation, said the review was 'understandable' and that London would continue to work closely with the U.S. and Australia on the deal. But the development was met with frustration from congressional Democrats, especially on the Eastern Seaboard, which houses some of America's largest shipyards. Australia has committed to investing $3 billion in modernizing U.S. shipyards that produce nuclear-powered submarines, a massive influx in cash that would benefit American industry and bulk up its ability to produce submarines. New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said news of the review 'will be met with cheers in Beijing.' She added that scrapping the partnership would 'further tarnish America's reputation and raise more questions among our closest defense partners about our reliability.' Colby has challenged major parts of the AUKUS deal, including a plan for the U.S. to sell three Virginia-class submarines to Australia, citing the need for the U.S. to maintain a robust undersea presence in the Pacific. The Virginia sales would come in three-year intervals starting in 2032 and would replace the retiring Collins-class submarines in the Australian arsenal. But Colby appeared more open to the project during his Senate confirmation hearing in March. 'It should be the policy of the United States government to do everything we can to make this work,' he said. Colby did note he was concerned that selling submarines to Australia, or using U.S. shipyards to help build them, could put the U.S. Navy in 'a weaker position' since they weren't going to American submarine development. The agreement would also mean closer cooperation among the three nations in building quantum computers and hypersonic weapons. And it has largely moved forward without controversy. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon in February and pledged the first $500 million of a $3 billion investment. President Donald Trump 'is very aware, supportive of AUKUS, recognizes the importance of the defense industrial base,' Hegseth said at the meeting. The three nations already have poured millions into training to operate nuclear-powered vessels. Australia has funneled even more into expanding its base in Perth on the country's western edge. Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee, questioned why the administration would launch the review when so much is underway. 'To walk away from all the sunk costs invested by our two closest allies, Australia and the United Kingdom, will have far-reaching ramifications on our trustworthiness on the global stage,' he said. 'It is a direct contradiction to the administration's 'America first, but not alone' goal of countering aggression from China, Russia and other adversaries.' Joe Gould and Esther Webber contributed to this report.
