Stu Shea, chairman, president and CEO of Peraton, who is also a five-time Wash100 Award recipient, provided a feature for DefenseNews detailing the impact that the pandemic has had on U.S. national security efforts and how government contractors should respond to the current set of challenges that continue to influence the nation’s systemic issues surrounding cyber attacks, supply chain management and other issues.
“Our national security today is not only dependent on our ability to effectively deter our adversaries, but also our ability to deliver robust citizen services, protect our financial systems and rapidly respond to an increasing volume of unconventional threats,” Stu Shea wrote.
Stu Shea illustrated the disruption that COVID-19 had on global health as well as the economic, political and security areas. Shea argued that these problems are all inextricably linked and can no longer be viewed as independent issues and it’s time for the federal landscape and government contracts to take a more holistic approach to address our national security efforts.
“Today’s threats often don’t fit neatly into traditional definitions of security. We must be nimble, agile and open-minded to respond to the challenge at hand,” Shea explained. “I hope to see more of our industry colleagues look at our collective national security universe holistically so that we can work together to solve the increasingly complex challenges confronting our customers.”
Shea also advocated for U.S. national security efforts to incorporate human security on top of the latest emerging technology capabilities to protect U.S. borders and deploy its military forces to ensure the security and well-being of our citizens.
He mentioned Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) as one of the key initiatives that will make a difference. Shea emphasized that a comprehensive set of capabilities is foundational to addressing the broad expanse of needs in this complex ecosystem of national security in 2022 and beyond.