The Department of Defense (DoD) is “very excited” about its recent request for information from industry about a key part of DoD’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) – one of the Pentagon’s top modernization priorities – a defense official said on Nov. 2.
Jonathan Odom, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), encouraged attendees to respond to the information request during remarks at the OutFront: Continuous Agility forum hosted by SAIC and MeriTalk in Arlington, Va.
The request for information – posted to DoD’s Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) Tradewinds website – urges industry to provide insight into the current state of commercial data-mesh capabilities to underpin CJADC2’s development. Officials view a data mesh, implemented with a zero trust cybersecurity model, as a potential way to implement the CJADC2 data target architecture.
“My focus is on delivering decisions superiority to the warfighter,” Odom said. “A lot of the times we talk about the tools, analytics, and applications that are used to do that, but data is really what powers that – the volume and velocity of data – and we have to turn it into information for the warfighter to use.”
He added that he wanted to “call out” the information request, saying “we’re very excited about that. And I would recommend that you all respond quickly.”
The Pentagon’s CJADC2 strategy envisions a network of networks to share sensor data across land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace forces to enable better and faster decisions, using technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and edge computing.
Military leaders view CJADC2 as a warfighting requirement needed to keep pace with the volume and complexity of data in modern warfare and to decisively defeat potential adversaries.
Odom’s remarks, delivered during a panel discussion on how the CJADC2 strategy “is leading the way to artificial intelligence-powered, accelerated and secure decision-making” highlighted a broader discussion about the importance of data in securing technological and military advantage.
Jay Meil, Director and Chief Data Scientist at SAIC’s Artificial Intelligence Innovation Factory, said during the panel discussion that he likes to emphasize how data is “really about the right data to the right people at the right time.”
“We hear a lot about how we need more data. We need more ingestion of data. We need to be able to do more with data,” Meil continued. “I think the answer is not necessarily more. It’s how do we systematically and logically ingest data, condition data, enrich data, process data, and use artificial intelligence … to make better decisions faster, and augment the warfighters workflow.”
Odom said he hopes for a robust response to DoD’s request for insight into data-mesh capabilities because military officials ae trying “to deliver data-centric decision making” and make data more accessible.
“One of the technical things we need to do is actually provide a mechanism for that data to be more easily accessible – applications across the (military) services, right from the strategic all the way down to the technical level.”
“It’s really a large effort,” he said.