In Episode 46 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast, we discuss a fundamental change that has occurred in the nature of war—and what this means for the United States and its allies.
Our guests explain why this change renders the American way of war obsolete and turns assumptions about US military dominance on their heads. They discuss how China, our most capable potential adversary, has used technology to enhance the primacy of its kill chain, while the United States pursues a method of war that is platform-centric and dangerously outdated. They predict that within a few years, if the United States does not adopt a radically different approach to warfighting it will find itself completely outmatched by China militarily—with devastating consequences for America’s place in the world and for the global norms which we now take for granted.
General David Berger is the thirty-eighth commandant of the Marine Corps. An infantry officer by background, he has served in a wide variety of command and staff billets over the course of his forty-one-year career. In his Commandant’s Planning Guidance, he has set the Marine Corps on a course to divest legacy platforms such as tanks and artillery while pursuing capabilities such as long-range sensing and precision fires that will—he believes—better prepare it for future conflict.
Christian Brose is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare. From 2014 to 2018, he was the staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He led a team of professional staff who supported Chairman John McCain and other majority committee members in overseeing the national defense budget, programs, and policies across the Department of Defense.
Together they discuss what needs to be done to enable the United States to maintain parity with China. That is, argues Brose, the best outcome that we can hope for at this stage in the game. General Berger, on the other hand, is more optimistic. He believes that the joint force—and the Marine Corps in particular—recognizes the threat and will move fast enough to find solutions and maintain US military dominance. Both agree, however, that this will not be easy, and they conclude with some valuable advice for both policymakers and practitioners alike.
The hosts for this episode are Andy Milburn and Shawna Sinnott. Please contact them with any questions about this episode or the Irregular Warfare Podcast.
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The solution embraces zero trust principles, officials said
After exploring multiple commercial prototypes, the Defense Innovation Unit is rolling out Google Cloud’s Secure Cloud Management solution, or SCM, across its entire organization.
Other Defense Department agencies can procure the offering through Other Transaction Authority agreements, according to a press release published by Google on Tuesday.
“In today’s new cybersecurity paradigm, it’s critical that government agencies see the benefits of adopting a zero trust security strategy and have the option of selecting more modern, cloud-native solutions that meet their unique needs,” Google Cloud Vice President, North America Public Sector, Lynn Martin wrote in the announcement.
Google Cloud developed SCM in collaboration with Palo Alto Networks.
The solution is considered a container-based offering that enables secure access to and management of hybrid cloud and multi-cloud applications, as well as ongoing monitoring.
This contract award follows a project in which DIU deployed three different year-long prototypes—each made individually by either Google, Zscaler, or McAfee Public Sector—to supply software-as-a-service options seamlessly over the internet.
SCM “embraces” zero trust principles and aligns with policies from President Joe Biden’s administration on implementing that modern approach, officials wrote in the release.
A third-party assessment organization evaluated this tool, they added, based on recommendations from the Defense Information Systems Agency.
To work with the Pentagon, cloud service providers have to show that they can meet specific security requirements, depending on the sensitivity of the data they will host. Lower “impact levels” handle data cleared for public release, and impact level six, or IL6, encompasses classified national security information.
“Google Cloud is FedRAMP High certified, has an IL2 PA globally, recently received an IL4 PA and is working with DISA for IL5 and IL6,” a Google spokesperson told Nextgov in an email on Wednesday. “Expanding our list of compliance certifications is a critical part of our mission and we are actively working towards higher approval levels.”
Google is one of several major technology companies preparing a bid for the Defense Department’s multibillion-dollar Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC contract.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s new software modernization strategy calls for establishing an enterprise-level software factory ecosystem to make the tools and applications used by its development hubs a more regular part of doing business.
The document, released late last week, says the 29 software factories that exist today across the military services have made significant progress, but the Department of Defense needs to better take advantage of that innovation. Danielle Metz, deputy chief information officer for the information enterprise, told reporters on Monday the goal is to harness the success of those factories and “inculcate that into the DNA of the department.”
Today’s software factories serve as centralized teams that provide software development services to various program offices. Well-known hubs include the Air Force’s Kessel Run, the Navy’s Overmatch Software Armory and the Army’s Coding Resources and Transformation Ecosystem.
Metz and Pentagon Chief Software Officer Jason Weiss told reporters the department doesn’t necessarily want to make changes to how the factories operate, but instead wants to hear from those organizations about what policy changes and standardization might be most helpful.
Weiss said the department expects to gain efficiencies and cost savings by being more strategic about how the factories operate and ensuring any redundancies aren’t inhibiting economies of scale.
“If we can achieve that, then that allows the software factory ecosystem to continue to grow, but to operate with higher degrees of scale and precision without having to start from scratch at every point,” he said.
Beyond establishing an enterprise-wide development ecosystem, the strategy identifies two other goals: accelerating the DoD enterprise cloud environment and transforming processes to enable resilience and speed.
As part of the cloud acceleration focus, the strategy calls for an “innovative portfolio of cloud contracts” to offer better access to cloud services. It also emphasizes the need to secure data in the cloud and improve infrastructure outside the continental United States to ensure those installations can take advantage of cloud capabilities.
To improve its software development and acquisition processes, the department must reevaluate its policies and guidance to make sure they’re not overly restrictive and continue to support flexibility in the way it acquires and funds software, the strategy says.
A memo accompanying the strategy, signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, says the department will develop an implementation plan over the next six months. A newly formed Software Modernization Senior Steering Group will coordinate and prioritize efforts under the strategy and will develop a yearly action plan. The group will also create a software capability portfolio to inform budget decisions and make sure efforts are integrated across DoD.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She previously covered the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force for Inside Defense.
The Defense Department released a broad plan to expand and ensure its technological edge on the shifting global conflict stage—equipped with a list of more than a dozen technologies it is prioritizing in the near term—via a six-page memorandum published on Thursday.
Penned by Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering and DOD Chief Technology Officer Heidi Shyu, the USD(R&E) Technology Vision for an Era of Competitionpreviews the impending National Defense Science and Technology Strategy and its development. Shyu’s office will also steer the making of that future-facing blueprint.
President Joe Biden’s administration is placing a sharp focus on strategic competition, particularly with Russia and China, as it crafts the latest National Defense Strategy that’s expected to be released early this year.
The Defense Department released a broad plan to expand and ensure its technological edge on the shifting global conflict stage—equipped with a list of more than a dozen technologies it is prioritizing in the near term—via a six-page memorandum published on Thursday.
President Joe Biden’s administration is placing a sharp focus on strategic competition, particularly with Russia and China, as it crafts the latest National Defense Strategy that’s expected to be released early this year.
A DOD spokesperson told Nextgov on Thursday that the S&T strategy’s release will depend on that of the National Defense Strategy, as the latter is considered the “guiding document.”
In the new memo, Shyu wrote that the United States’ “strategic competitors” have greater access to ultramodern commercial technologies “than ever before,” which can be used to disrupt America.
“The challenges facing our country are both diverse and complex, ranging from sophisticated cyber-attacks to supply chain risks, and from defending against hypersonic missiles to responding to biological threats,” she wrote, later adding that it’s “imperative for the department to nurture early research and discover new scientific breakthroughs to prevent technological surprise.”
Three pillars that will “anchor” the Pentagon’s forthcoming technology strategy are detailed in this memo. They are listed as:
Mission Focus: Leverage the United States’ incredible technology innovation potential to solve the department’s tough operational, engineering and mission-focused challenges.
Foundation Building: Set the foundation to attract and build a strong, talented future technical workforce that works in modernized laboratories and test facilities.
Succeed through Teamwork: Maximize asymmetric advantages by partnering with the larger innovation ecosystem, from industry to universities and to laboratories, allies and partners.
The undersecretary further emphasized that this “era of strategic competition demands collective cooperation.” Among others, DOD will need to work with the defense industrial base, academia, startups, international partners and “even with our competitors,” she wrote, to confront the challenges of this century.
Also in the memo are 14 “critical technology areas,” that DOD considers “vital to maintaining” U.S. national security. They are spread across three categories. The list will be updated as capabilities and the defense strategies evolve, but for now, it includes:
Seed areas of emerging opportunity: biotechnology, quantum science, future generation wireless tech—or FutureG—and advanced materials;
Effective adoption areas: trusted artificial intelligence and autonomy, integrated network system-of-systems, microelectronics, space technology, renewable generation and storage, advanced computing and software, and human-machine interfaces;
Defense-specific areas: directed energy weapons and systems, hypersonics, and integrated sensing and cyber.
“Successful competition requires imagining our military capability as an ever-evolving collective, not a static inventory of weapons in development or sustainment,” Shyu wrote. “In many cases, effective competition benefits from sidestepping symmetric arms races and instead comes from the creative application of new concepts with emerging science and technology.”
In a wide-ranging report published Tuesday, the watchdog found that the department failed to sufficiently monitor the accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness of clinical information as it was transferred in segments from one system to another.
GAO recommended that the department establish performance measures for migrated data and that it use a stakeholder register.
“Although VA performed data testing activities identified in its plans, the department did not ensure that the quality of data migrated to the new EHR system sufficiently met clinicians’ quality needs,” GAO said in the report. In some interviews conducted by the watchdog, clinicians reported being unable to access patient information such as allergies, medications and immunizations, and also reported data errors.
The concerns were raised in relation to a staging environment used as data was transferred from the VA’s National Data Center in Austin, Texas, to a data center operated by contractor Cerner in Kansas City, Missouri. GAO’s performance audit was conducted over the period August 2019 to February 2022.
A greater-than-required volume of certain patient data, such as medication data, was also selected for initial migration, according to the watchdog. It found also that while VA implemented a feedback system to address concerns, it did not use a stakeholder register to help identify and engage all relevant stakeholders for reporting continuity.
“A stakeholder register is intended to help identify and engage all relevant stakeholders. Until VA uses such a tool, the department risks overlooking EHRM stakeholder needs for reporting on patient care, operations, and research functions,” the watchdog said.
The Office of Management and Budget’s Federal Data Strategy highlights the importance of validating data quality, including their accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness.
The new findings come after sustained criticism from lawmakers late last year following the department’s decision to push ahead with the rollout of the EHR platform at a new location despite safety concerns from frontline staff.
Last month, the VA announced a further delay to the rollout of the program, citing surging COVID-19 cases at its medical network in central Ohio. The system will now go live at the location April 30 instead of the previously set date of March 5.
In a statement, VA said that it concurred with the recommendations in GAO’s report: “The Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) Integration Office will establish and use performance measures and goals, aligned with and integrated into the VA Data Strategy, to ensure the quality of migrated data meets stakeholder needs for accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness prior to future system deployments.
“This aspect of EHRM will meet enterprise data quality and reliability standards. The EHRM Integration Office will also use a stakeholder register to improve the identification and engagement of all relevant EHRM stakeholders and address their reporting needs,” the agency added.
In a statement, general manager of Cerner Government Services Brian Sandager said: “Supporting the VA in its efforts to provide veterans with safe, effective, holistic care is our top priority.” He added: “We are committed to working with our VA partners to quickly identify and aggressively address any concerns, as they implement a new electronic health record system that will give veterans and their providers a single record to support a lifetime of seamless care.”
The writer George Saunders has a fitting analogy for the current Covid-19 moment: We’ve slipped on ice but haven’t hit the pavement yet. We’re caught in a suspended state between losing control and feeling the full impact.
The comparison points to a paradoxical tension that leaders must manage: providing direction, guidance, and reassurance while acknowledging that the path ahead isn’t clear. Doing one thing without the other doesn’t work. Both are needed to help people find the clarity and strength to move forward.
Balancing this tension requires leaders to lead with humanity and do a few important things.
Put People First
Hard-charging cost savings and profit motives that may have previously served an organization well could backfire in the current environment. In a recent survey by the public relations firm Edelman, 71% of respondents said they would lose trust in a brand forever if they believed it was putting profit over people. The reaction to companies perceived as having done so has been punishing and swift:
Within 24 hours of cutting staff members’ pay, the owners of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers admitted they had a mistake, apologized, and reversed course, largely avoiding a backlash. The owners of the NHL’s Boston Bruins and their home arena, TD Garden, were slower to react and got brutalized in the media as a result.
When the food delivery service GrubHub rolled out a discount for customers ordering online, supposedly to support restaurants struggling in the pandemic, it forced restaurants to bear the discount’s brunt, drawing ire from restaurants and customers and sparking calls for a boycott.
Other organizations are putting people first. The Las Vegas Sands has said it will pay its nearly 10,000 employees as if they were still working even though its properties have been closed. The Dallas Mavericks has kept on all its hourly workers.
And consider VillageMD, which partners with and employs some 2,700 physicians across the United States. I spoke with CEO Tim Barry last week about his company’s strategy. With patient volume in many medical practices down by 50% to 75% and providers laying off and furloughing clinical and nonclinical staff, VillageMD is finding creative ways to keep people on. It’s scaling back office visits, now reserved for the most medically needy, and ramping up telehealth services.
“We are resisting cuts, because it’s the right thing to do for both patients and staff,” Barry told me. “Instead of laying off our medical assistants, we have asked them to stay in virtual contact with our sicker patients. The patients love the extra attention during this confusing and often lonely time, and our staff is thrilled to continue engaging with them. While we can’t guarantee no layoffs, we are being transparent about the situation and our desire to avoid them. And we are asking people to be flexible in terms of what is being asked of them.”
Be Up-Front and Vulnerable
Everyone is having bad moments, bad days, and bad weeks. It’s OK to let the struggles show. Several years ago I wrote about the idea that good leaders get emotional. That’s never been more true.
After seeing Marriott’s revenue fall by nearly 75% in most markets because of Covid-19, CEO Arne Sorenson wanted to deliver a video message to employees. His team advised against it because of his appearance: He had been undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer, and chemotherapy had left him bald. Sorenson made the video nonetheless. In it he announced that he and the company’s chairman would forgo their salaries in 2020 and that the executive team’s compensation would be halved. He choked up at the end, while talking about supporting Marriott associates around the world. The video has inspired other leaders to give up their salaries too.
Openness and vulnerability were also exemplified by Dan Price, the CEO of the credit card processor Gravity Payments, whose monthly revenue had been cut in half by the pandemic. He calculated that the company would be bankrupt in several months. Wanting to avoid layoffs but facing a grim financial reality, he decided to share the situation with his staffand get people’s input about how to proceed. Over the course of four days he and his COO held 40 hours of meetings with small groups of employees. “We just put all our cards on the table,” Price says. “And we listened.”
Following the meetings, company leaders decided to reduce salaries rather than lay people off, but their plan had an important twist. Instead of cutting everyone’s pay by a certain percentage across the board, they asked each employee to say privately how much he or she could sacrifice. The strategy worked because Price had built a strong culture of trust. ”CEOs: please, consider talking with your employees before laying them off,” he tweeted. ”We lost half our $4M monthly revenue & had 4-6 months until bankruptcy. When we told employees this, they volunteered pay cuts that will get us through 8-12 months, with no layoffs.”
Support and Connect
The pandemic is having a vastly different personal impact from previous crises. People are getting sick; some are dying. Amid our existential anxiety, we’re doing our best to carry on. We’re working from home, if we’re lucky; we may be unemployed, or we may be out on the front lines. Our children are trying to learn online and are missing their friends. We’re worried about our elderly loved ones. We’re worried about rent, mortgages, and the other day-to-day needs we took for granted just weeks ago. Compassion and opportunities for sustained connection are critical.
For leaders, this means, at a minimum, slowing down, being flexible, and giving employees leeway to deal with these new challenges. It also means an opportunity to connect more deeply.
Last week I spoke with the U.S. CEO of a global professional services firm about the importance of making time for personal connections. “We’re learning a lot about what works and what doesn’t in connecting the organization virtually,” he said. “One of the most valuable lessons is the importance of making more room for informal, face-to-face, unstructured time. In a culture that is usually all business, we’ve been hitting the pause button to just listen and support one another.”
He shared an example of a town hall call that went over by an hour as colleagues in some of the hardest-hit areas of the world shared their stories. “As leaders, we recognized that the need to hear and support one another was more important than the transactional needs at that moment. That simple insight can be easily missed among a bunch of Type-A professionals. But it’s crucial. The former supports the latter over the long term.”
Connecting on a personal level has also been a priority for Neil Sprackling, president of U.S. Life & Health at the reinsurer Swiss Re. “I start and finish every employee and client interaction on a personal note,” he says. “We tell stories, and I ask if they need any specific support. It seems small, but taking the time to consciously do this has been tremendously helpful in strengthening relationships and maintaining our sanity.”
That personal approach has been extended to group gatherings. When one of Sprackling’s senior direct reports retired last week after 40 years with Swiss Re, his team organized a surprise virtual farewell. “The retiree thought she was dialing into a call with her direct reports.Then over 30 colleagues and I joined a Skype video chat. We made time for each person to share a tribute. It was a very poignant moment. Kleenex all around.”
It could be argued that the suggestions outlined above are just good leadership, no matter what the circumstances. That may be true, but it misses an important point: Understanding good leadership and practicing it are two different things, especially in the face of uncertainty and one’s own anxiety.
In the weeks and months ahead, leaders need to move beyond themselves and stand in other people’s shoes. Endure challenges on others’ behalf. Be open and vulnerable. Experiment with ways of offering communication and support. Trust that caring and open-hearted leadership will not only pay off now but also reap rewards well into the future.
The annual index ranks countries based on 42 indicators.
The U.S. federal government is the most prepared among 160 nations to use artificial intelligence in the public services they provide, according to a report released this week by London-based consultancy Oxford Insights.
The annual report, called the 2021 Government AI Readiness Index, rates countries based on 42 indicators—including software spending and industry investment in emerging technologies—across three pillars: government, technology sector, and data and infrastructure.
Buoyed by the unrivaled maturity of its technology sector, the U.S. topped the rankings, followed by Singapore, which topped the government pillar due to its digital capacity. The United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
“Governments stand to gain from the vast applications of recent developments in AI,” said Richard Stirling, CEO and co-founder of Oxford Insights. “Those governments who take a strategic approach to harnessing AI within government and promoting their national AI sector are likely to see the greatest benefits. Our 2021 AI Readiness Index results demonstrate a growing understanding of this amongst governments.”
According to the report, the U.S. scored the highest among all nations in several indicators, including investment in software and emerging technologies. The U.S. is also home to numerous major tech firms, which equates to the largest collection of potential AI suppliers of any country. Further, the report states AI technologies are “being commercialized and adopted across the economy,” a key barometer for government AI readiness.
“This is important for government AI readiness. It indicates that: the pool of suppliers will have genuinely useful tools for government, and the country’s workforce will be developing the skills required for the use of AI, which is likely to spillover into the government’s internal capacity,” the report states.
According to the report, the U.S. is among 40% of nations that have either published or are in the process of publishing national AI strategies. The U.S. has published and updated its own AI strategy, and several federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, have published their own AI strategies.
OpenAI has built a new version of GPT-3, its game-changing language model, that it says does away with some of the most toxic issues that plagued its predecessor. The San Francisco-based lab says the updated model, called InstructGPT, is better at following the instructions of people using it—known as “alignment” in AI jargon—and thus produces less offensive language, less misinformation, and fewer mistakes overall—unless explicitly told not to do so.
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