"Anybody who leads knows that the hardest thing to do is change culture,” Mark Gorak told Breaking Defense. "And I think we have to do that in order to retain the force we have.”
“We're in the early stages of it," Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton said about an AI pilot program. "But my point is we're not sitting on the sidelines and watching, we're diving in.”
“I think our focus right now is we have to grow fast…And that’s done through good hiring actions…it’s also the retention of employees that we have," Christopher Green said. "I want to make sure we build a culture where people want to come to work everyday, they want to stay with us and they want to help us build our capabilities.”
Brig. Gen. Ed Barker said he’s outlined a 100-day plan as he takes over the Army's program executive office for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors.
DISA Director Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner also provided an update on the Pentagon's sprawling cloud effort, saying 13 task orders have gone out, totaling some $200 million.
“This one, we’re still continuously talking to industry about and we want feedback because…we’re going down this path for the same reasons,” Young Bang said about AI BOMs. “We want to reduce our attack surface from an algorithmic standpoint.”
The five finalists in the Hack-A-Sat 4 contest competed in nine different challenges, seven of them involving hacking into the Moonlighter CubeSat built by The Aerospace Corporation and Space Systems Command as a on-orbit cybersecurity testbed.
“I think across our entire portfolio, there are opportunities for us to simplify and deliver capabilities that allow for our units to have a more flexible network infrastructure,” Mark Kitz said.
“To stay ahead of our competitors, the Department of Defense needs access to the commercial supply chain of microelectronics," William LaPlante, USD A&S, said. "It is absolutely essential, but it comes with inherent risks. The independent panel review is helping us better understand the risk-based approach we need to take."
No current contracts, awards, jobs or physical moves are being affected by the PEOs restructuring, an Army spokesman said, but the reorg aims to streamline technical capabilities.