Pentagon unveils IT modernization plan to tackle talent, tech hurdles

The Pentagon unveiled a new IT modernization strategy dubbed “Fulcrum” on Tuesday that lays out tangible steps for leaders to address workforce shortages, make its networks faster and streamline policies for more efficient procurement and governance.

On June 20, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks approved the strategy, and the department announced it on June 25, coinciding with the 2024 TechNet Cyber conference presented by the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association International in Baltimore.

“Fulcrum describes ‘what’ the DoD must achieve with respect to advancing IT for the warfighter and ‘why’ it matters,” according to a department statement.

The strategy offers specifics on broad, sweeping goals by the Pentagon to communicate faster and more securely with warfighters and allies. To date, the government has issued a number of strategic plans and frameworks to double down on cybersecurity and accelerate the military’s development of tools like AI, but this plan takes that a step further by prioritizing user experience and scalable, agile investments.

“It’s called ‘fulcrum’ because it sits at the nexus between our national security strategy, our strategic management plans — our really ‘big thinking’ strategies,” said Leslie Beavers, principal deputy chief information officer, on Tuesday.

With so many tools coming to market from different vendors and small businesses also hoping to break in, the strategy gives leaders guideposts for how to assess what tools and internal resources are needed.

Critically, it also devotes a category to developing the workforce, specifically by broadening the DoD Cyber Workforce Framework to focus more intently on roles for data, AI and software engineering.

The DoD has long said this is an established need.

“There is a recognized shortage of skilled cyber personnel that could potentially impact operational readiness across the Department and put national security at risk,” according to the department’s 2023 Cyber Workforce Strategy. “Despite the vast expansion of cyber educational and experiential opportunities, the nation’s cyber talent pipeline remains limited.”

As in the private sector, government, too, is struggling with too few tech practitioners that make new cybersecurity practices difficult to implement. At the same time, much of the technical guidance handed down by experts in tech shops is written for the actual programmists, not senior executives, so there needs to be an available reserve of workers, DoD officials said at the conference.

“Leadership is a force multiplier and to outpace [adversaries] we have to maximize the talent from our broad array of partners, and recruit and retain our own talent,” said Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, at the conference.

Finally, the new strategy also seeks to streamline governance and enhance use of data to backup decision-making and identify cost savings to deliver joint warfighting capabilities faster amid high-tempo, multi-domain operations.

“We must challenge legacy approaches and move move toward rapid innovation for them,” said Haugh. “We cannot succeed when our existing processes move slower than the rate of innovation change.”

Molly Weisner is a staff reporter for Federal Times where she covers labor, policy and contracting pertaining to the government workforce. She made previous stops at USA Today and McClatchy as a digital producer, and worked at The New York Times as a copy editor. Molly majored in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

周二，五角大楼公布了一项名为“支点”的全新IT现代化战略，该战略为领导者制定了切实可行的步骤，以解决劳动力短缺问题，加快网络速度，并简化政策，从而提高采购和治理效率。

6 月 20 日，国防部副部长凯瑟琳·希克斯批准了该战略，国防部于 6 月 25 日宣布了该战略，恰逢由国际武装部队通信与电子协会在巴尔的摩举办的 2024 年 TechNet 网络会议。

根据国防部的一份声明，“Fulcrum 描述了国防部在推进作战人员信息技术方面必须实现的‘目标’以及‘为什么’这很重要。”

该战略具体阐述了五角大楼旨在与作战人员和盟友更快、更安全地沟通的宏伟目标。迄今为止，美国政府已发布多项战略计划和框架，以加大网络安全投入并加速军方人工智能等工具的研发，但该计划更进一步，优先考虑用户体验和可扩展、灵活的投资。

“之所以称之为‘支点’，是因为它位于我们的国家安全战略、战略管理计划——我们真正的‘大局观’战略的交汇点，”首席副信息官莱斯利·比弗斯周二表示。

由于市场上涌现出许多来自不同供应商的工具，而且许多小型企业也希望打入市场，该战略为领导者提供了评估所需工具和内部资源的指导方针。

至关重要的是，它还专门设立了一个类别来发展劳动力，具体做法是扩大国防部网络劳动力框架，更加集中地关注数据、人工智能和软件工程方面的角色。

美国国防部长期以来一直表示，这是一项既定的需求。

根据该部门2023年网络安全人才战略，“网络安全专业人才短缺已是公认的事实，这可能会影响整个部门的作战准备，并危及国家安全。” “尽管网络安全教育和实践机会大幅增加，但国家网络安全人才储备仍然有限。”

与私营部门一样，政府也面临着技术从业人员短缺的困境，这使得新的网络安全措施难以实施。与此同时，国防部官员在会议上指出，技术部门专家提供的许多技术指导都是为实际程序员而非高级管理人员编写的，因此需要储备足够的技术人员。

“领导力是力量的倍增器，为了超越（对手），我们必须最大限度地利用我们广泛的合作伙伴的人才，并招募和留住我们自己的人才，”美国网络司令部司令兼国家安全局局长蒂莫西·D·豪格将军在会议上说。

最后，新战略还力求简化治理，加强数据利用，以支持决策，并找出节约成本的方法，从而在快节奏、多域作战中更快地提供联合作战能力。

“我们必须挑战传统的做法，并朝着快速创新的方向发展，”霍夫说。“如果现有的流程速度跟不上创新变革的速度，我们就无法取得成功。”

莫莉·韦斯纳是《联邦时报》的专职记者，主要报道与政府劳动力相关的劳工、政策和合同方面的新闻。她曾先后在《今日美国》和麦克拉奇报业集团担任数字内容制作人，并在《纽约时报》担任过文字编辑。莫莉毕业于北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校，主修新闻学。