U.S. Army officials said the military branch has initiated organizational changes in the way it procures information technology platforms and services, which they believe could enable the service to make great strides when it comes to simplifying its IT networks, Federal News Network reported Monday.
“Don’t underestimate institutional change, because I would submit to you that’s one of the key things that is very, very different here,” said Lt. Gen. John Morrison, deputy chief of staff for the Army’s command, control, communications, cyber operations and networks (G-6).
“We’re used to 40 to 60 different organizational networks that were out there, and that made us wildly inefficient. … And so this is an institutional shift: We’re not going to do that anymore,” Morrison added.
He mentioned some of the earlier institutional changes that could help the Army achieve network simplification, including the centralization of network defense and management responsibilities within Army Cyber Command.
The Army’s program executive officer for command, control and communications-tactical now oversees network capability development and acquisition responsibilities, which were previously divided into two PEOs.
Mark Kitz, the top official at PEO-C3T, cited some examples of measures his office has introduced to address network complexity issues. Among them is having unified network operations.
“Another example is in our next generation tactical terminal program, where we’re consolidating our SATCOM capabilities,” Kitz said.
“We’re doing that in a way that challenges industry to deliver a capability that can be flexible to the future so we’re not stuck with one band or one technology for 20 years. So already in our programs, we’re baking in the ability to be flexible and agile,” he added.
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