Traditionally, that meant collecting and sending data back to command facilities in Hawaii or the continental U.S. for analysis and response. But in fast-changing operational environments, that approach is quickly becoming outmoded and unreliable.

This scenario highlights both the challenge commanders face and the strategic shift underway across the military. The decisive advantage no longer rests solely on the movement of troops and materiel—but on the ability to move and process information faster, more securely, and with greater operational relevance than adversaries.

Achieving that kind of information advantage means being able to deliver real-time insights to warfighters in the field—especially in environments where communications are disconnected, disrupted, intermittent, or limited (DDIL). This isn’t just a technical upgrade; it’s a strategic imperative.

Underlying this shift is the growing expectation that actionable intelligence will reach those on the front lines faster than it reaches our adversaries. That expectation is driven in no small part by the commercial experience most consumers have become accustomed to – e.g., the ability to track deliveries en route and notifications when they arrive.  

Conflict planning and logistics in contested DDIL environments are obviously more complicated, which is all the more reason why the advantage lies with those who have an information advantage. That requires assessing, processing, and disseminating vast amounts of data quickly at the edge.

Gaining the data edge

“In many regards, data is the five-five-six round of the next war,” said John Sahlin, vice president for defense cyber solutions at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), referring to the standardized rifle cartridge used by NATO forces. “It has become the lynchpin to enhance the decision-making process for advantage.”

That advantage depends on more than just collecting data. It requires turning it into usable intelligence faster than adversaries can react.

“The core problem is latency,” explained Matt Ashton, partner customer engineer at Google Public Sector. “Until recently, the immense volume of data from sensors, drones, and logistical trackers required the processing power and AI available primarily in distant cloud computing centers.”

“Our DOD customers struggle with the current status quo at the edge because they can’t run true AI,” said Ashton. “So data has to get sent back to the mother ship to crunch the data and get a resolution. The massive differentiator now is our ability to provide AI at the edge.”

According to both industry experts, the solution lies in a combination of powerful, ruggedized edge computing platforms and AI models specifically engineered for defense use that can operate independently, even when completely disconnected from high-capacity networks.

Google, for example, provides this capability through its Google Distributed Cloud (GDC), a platform designed to bring data center capabilities to the field.

“GDC was built to run so it never has to ‘call home.’ It can sit on the Moon or a ship. It doesn’t have to get updates,” Ashton said. “It’s a family of solutions that includes a global network, but also features an air-gapped GDC box that connects to the Wide Area Network and other on-prem servers not on the internet.”

This allows commanders on submarines, at remote bases, or in forward-deployed positions to run AI and analytics locally and process vast sensor data streams in-theater without waiting on external links.

Why mission-specific AI models matter

However, raw computing power is only part of the equation. Commercial AI models often lack a nuanced understanding of military operations. This is where operationally relevant AI models developed by GDIT that translate raw data into relevant, actionable intelligence are crucial.

Sahlin compared the role of mission-specific AI models to a speedometer in a car. “What it measures is the revolutions per minute of the axle. What it reports is how fast you’re going in miles per hour,” he explained. “That’s the kind of insight that only comes from real-world familiarity with military operations.”

“A clear grasp of operational objectives is key to developing models that are tuned to real-world demands of each mission,” said Sahlin. “So that may mean multiple mini-models to translate data into relevant insights.”

Sahlin also explained why applications built on an open data architecture model are crucial to adaptability at the edge.

“The real value of an open data architecture, particularly in the defense industry, is that it’s a very decentralized platform. Logistics is a classic example of commercial, local, last-mile delivery providers working with many sources. In the military, you won’t have a single source or model. This is where open architecture is critical.”

Security remains foundational to all of this. Sahlin noted that while the military can benefit from commercial innovation, it still needs to ensure higher levels of security than commercial operators. So it’s also essential that the military’s AI development partners have a deep understanding of the Defense Department’s zero trust security practices and requirements, which apply to the broader base of defense suppliers in the DOD’s supply chain.

“GDIT’s value lies in its longstanding experience supporting defense missions,” Sahlin said. “We work with clients to gather the right data, build tailored models, and deliver intelligence to the edge, even in DDIL conditions where units may be disconnected or intentionally silent.”

Looking ahead

By combining a platform like GDC with mission-specific AI models from GDIT, military logistics teams can move from reactive support to proactive planning, anticipating needs, reallocating resources, and outmaneuvering adversaries.

As operational demands grow more complex and communications become more contested, defense leaders say gaining an information advantage at the edge isn’t just important, it’s essential for mission success.

Learn more about how GDIT and Google Distributed Cloud can help your organization deliver at the edge more proactively.

This article was sponsored by GDIT and Google Cloud.

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The DOD currently maintains more than 2 million Microsoft 365 E5 licenses across two separate programs — the Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) and the Enterprise Software Initiative (DOD ESI). Through the established contracts, Pentagon components can purchase software licenses for commercial Microsoft products, including Office 365 applications and other collaboration tools.

But ongoing efforts spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have prompted the Defense Department to review how many of those licenses it actually needs, Katie Arrington, who is performing the duties of Pentagon CIO, told DefenseScoop.

“Our Microsoft 365 contract [is a] very big contract here in the Department of Defense. Does every individual in the Department of Defense need an [E5] license? Absolutely not,” Arrington said June 6 in an exclusive interview.

With the department’s Deputy CIO for the Information Enterprise Bill Dunlap, Arrington has been working alongside her DOGE representative to review individual position descriptions and multi-level securities to determine what level of Microsoft 365 E5 license that person needs, she said. Other criteria being considered include user and mission requirements for office productivity software, as well as collaboration capabilities, a DOD CIO spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

CSRA, which is owned by General Dynamics IT, has served as the lead integrator for the DEOS contract since 2020, when the company received a 10-year blanket purchase agreement from the General Services Administration and Defense Department. The program allows Pentagon components to purchase individual licenses for cloud-based Microsoft 365 email and collaboration tools on a monthly basis.

Although the GDIT-led team, which also includes Dell Marketing and Minburn Technology Group, initially received the award in 2019, the department was forced to re-compete the contract following two bid protests by competitor Perspecta. The procurement battle resulted in the GSA and Pentagon giving the contract to GDIT at an estimated value of $4.4 billion — much lower than its originally projected $7.6 billion value.

The department can also purchase licenses for software products — including from Microsoft and other vendors, such as Oracle — using an Enterprise Software Agreement (ESA) contract vehicle, which is managed by the DOD ESI. Instead of buying individual licenses through DEOS, an ESA is used to purchase software via resellers in bulk and on an annual basis.

Arrington did not say how many Microsoft licenses are on the chopping block, but emphasized that the effort is geared toward “optimizing the licenses that we have.”

A reduction in E5 licenses would be yet another cut to the Pentagon’s IT enterprise prompted by the department’s work with DOGE. Along with reductions to its civilian workforce, the Defense Department has ordered several of its IT consulting contracts be cancelled and replaced by internally sourced services — an action also being taken by some of the military departments, as well as the DOD CIO.

“On an average day we would probably put out a contract for consulting on how to optimize or automate the RMF. We didn’t do that. We went internally. We did it ourselves, and we’re going to use our partners in the industry to help, because they would be the beneficiaries,” Arrington said, referring to her ongoing push to overhaul the Pentagon’s Risk Management Framework (RMF).

The office is also reviewing its contracts with systems integrators to ensure there are no duplicative efforts underway, as well as pushing for more use of commercial-off-the-shelf capabilities, she added.

Despite challenges that may come from DOGE-inspired cuts, Arrington said that she believes the work will help the Pentagon be on a “level playing field” moving forward.

“[The Defense Department] is as energized as I’ve ever seen it. But that doesn’t mean there’s no concern,” she said. “Change is hard, but it’s definitely needed.”

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The report, “Navigating the Intelligence Community IT Roadmap,” analyzes key challenges facing the IC and outlines how existing and tested technology capabilities can help IC components gain a strategic advantage over adversaries.

The report’s timely release aligns with the IC’s five-year IT roadmap, which seeks to advance intelligence operations by promoting seamless collaboration, enhanced data sharing and management and the ability to deploy the newest tech innovations rapidly.

The report highlights a variety of currently available technical capabilities developed by GDIT as part of its long-standing work to support the U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, including:

• DeepSky — a private, multi-cloud, on-prem data center environment developed and maintained by GDIT that facilitates the testing of emerging technology and security capabilities from multiple providers in collaboration with government agencies and their partners. “It’s really difficult to ingest massive amounts of data from a bunch of tools and make it usable for an engineer, an analyst or an executive. So DeepSky helps make those tools work together,” says Ryan Deslauriers, director of cybersecurity at GDIT.

• Mission Partner Environments — a new generation of interoperable networking and data exchange environments. Originally designed to allow military units to exchange data with specific partners, these expanded information-sharing environments enable the selective yet secure sharing of sensitive and classified information with trusted military and coalition partners. MPEs make it possible to take a “full report, break out what can and can’t be released, and push it to the appropriate network virtually and automatically so that information gets to relevant users where they are in a timely fashion,” explains Jennifer Krischer, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who now serves as vice president for defense intelligence at GDIT.

• Raven — a mobile command center tech suite developed by GDIT that fits in the back of a truck. It extends and deploys the data mesh concept to mobile environments. It can be utilized for disaster relief, special forces operations, or disconnected environments, enabling operators to collect and disseminate data from the tactical edge directly to users on the ground and back to the enterprise. Raven is an example of how GDIT “enables teams to conduct their mission without having to develop, build, maintain, and operate the services internally,” notes Nicholas Townsend, senior director at GDIT.

• Federated Data Fabric — creates a unified data environment through a centralized service platform designed to streamline data curation, management, and dissemination and enable seamless access to data independent of its source or security level. It allows users on the network’s edge to discover, request, publish and subscribe to information within a federated network environment.

Workforce commitment

The report also highlights GDIT’s distinctive approach to hiring and training professionals with extensive defense, IC, and technical experience who uniquely understand the needs of the government’s mission.

“Our workforce two to five years from now will need to be different from what it is today and prepared to take advantage of new technology,” notes Chaz Mason, mission engineering and delivery lead at GDIT. Recognizing this, GDIT doubled its investment in tuition and technical training programs in 2023. More than 20,000 employees have taken at least one of our cyber, AI, and cloud upskilling programs, he said.

GDIT’s staff currently numbers 30,000 professionals supporting customers in over 400 locations across 30 countries; 25%+ of the workforce are veterans.

Read more about how GDIT’s vendor-agnostic technology and decades of government customer experience can help achieve the Intelligence Community’s data-sharing vision.

This article was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and DefenseScoop and sponsored by GDIT.

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On a panel moderated by DefenseScoop Tuesday at a Scoop News Group-produced GDIT event, two Defense Department officials and two defense industry executives shared their latest insights on contemporary, real-world threats they’re tracking — at this convergence of IT systems, like computers and servers, with OT systems, like vehicles and medical devices — and how their teams are moving swiftly to adapt and respond.

“When we think about it, installations are our critical power projection platforms. They’re foundational to allow us to launch our critical missions, to ensure readiness, and really do power projection for the United States Air Force and for the DOD in general,” the Department of the Air Force’s acting Deputy Principal Cyber Advisor Lt. Col. Andrew Wonpat said.

“And when we think about cybersecurity, one of the big initiatives across the [DOD] and the U.S. government is zero trust. And that is transformative if we’re going to look at how we do that for operation technology,” he added.

Wonpat and the other panelists reflected on the broad landscape of global, existing and emerging OT vulnerabilities they’re monitoring and moving to mitigate.

Pointing to recent publicly reported numbers he pulled, Wonpat said that “China has approximately 100,000 cyber operators.” Noting that number could be an inflated estimation, he argued it’s best to assume that the real number could be much lower.  

“So, if we just extrapolate that, if China only has half of that — 50,000, that’s about the number of people in a [specific] town or a city within the United States — so that is significant for us from a military perspective, and the Department of Air Force to really grapple with,” Wonpat said.

Dwindling that down further, assuming only 10% of those personnel would be explicitly focused on OT efforts, it would still be about 5,000 people, which in his view is a lot for the service to contend with.

“So, how do we contend with those threats? One thing we did — one of the big initiatives — is [the Air Force established a new] organization called CROCS, or the Cyber Resiliency Office for Control Systems. They’re really responsible for coordinating and overseeing the cybersecurity of our control systems and operation technology, as well as defending critical infrastructure,” Wonpat explained. “And there’s a lot that goes into that.”

He confirmed that early lines of effort for the CROCS team include workforce, governance, visibility and prioritization activities, and transforming OT defense and response.

“I’m really excited about the CROCS organization … It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this in the department and we really need it,” Tony Robertiello, GDIT’s senior program director for Air Force enterprise IT programs, said.

For the Air Force and civil engineering community, GDIT provides cybersecurity and associated protection services for about 600 facility-related control systems across the globe in multiple forms. 

Spotlighting recent analysis the company has captured, Robertiello noted that the convergence between OT and IT across the internet protocol or IP space is currently considered to be an intensifying threat.

“We have inventory data for those 600 systems — 30,000 devices are IP-based. And these are devices that you don’t put certificates on them, but they could scan the network and could be attacked or could be a point of attack,” he explained.

The GDIT team is working in partnership with the 16th Air Force, an information warfare hub with OT data that Robertiello said they’ve never had access to before. 

“What’s no surprise now is that the top 10 systems in the Air Force of all the systems that they track data on — the most vulnerable systems, that top 10 — it’s OT systems. These are legacy systems. So, the threat is real out there against these types of systems,” Robertiello said.

He and other panelists also discussed Volt Typhoon and similar recent OT attacks aligned with what is reportedly China-backed advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, targeting critical infrastructure.

“One observation I will make is that if you look at what’s publicly reported, the Typhoon family is not doing the ransomware phishing attacks. They’re chaining vulnerabilities together and developing some legitimately sophisticated ways of intruding in the systems. The good news about that is that it means the sort of traditional stuff is less effective. So, some of the things that we’ve been doing for years — trying to secure systems and teach people about phishing — some of that is having an effect,” said Terry Kalka, director of the defense industrial base collaborative information-sharing environment at DOD’s Cyber Crime Center (DC3).

Officials inside DC3 are executing on what he referred to as defensive missions on DOD networks, as well as for the defense industrial base.

“One of the things we’ve had a lot of success in is vulnerability disclosure, where we work with white hat open-source or crowd-sourced researchers to look for vulnerabilities on public infrastructure,” Kafka said.

In the eight years since that program launched, around 50,000 vulnerability reports have been submitted, and heaps of patches have been made in response. More recently, the DC3 opted to build on that momentum by setting up a defense industrial base vulnerable disclosure program. 

“Now there’s an IBM report that estimates the cost of a data breach each year. This year, they say a data breach costs, on average, $4.8 million. I’m not going to try to do the math onstage. But if we have so far, in the DIBVDP, mitigated 59 vulnerabilities in six months … that’s about $288 million that we’ve saved industry and therefore saved the taxpayer. That’s a nice statistic if you have to go ask for cybersecurity money. And secondly, it’s a real, tangible effect in terms of what’s publicly available and how can we close that off as a way of entry,” Kalka said.

Autonomous endpoint management is another increasingly powerful solution the panelists highlighted. 

Sam Kinch, who previously worked at U.S. Cyber Command and is now an executive client advisor at Tanium, brought up a recent statistic that 70 percent of successful breaches start at the end point, which he said further reflects the growing need for organizations to capture IT and OT assets under one single umbrella of real-time visibility.

“One of the other stats that came out of DOD recently, if you look at the IT estate across their enterprise, it’s about 4 million endpoints they project right now. And they don’t know, but they’re projecting 15 to 18 million endpoints when you include the OT side of the house,” he noted.

“How is that for a target surface in a vulnerability state? Autonomous endpoint management is going to be essential. And what that means to us is really, how do you incorporate autonomy and automation into the process flows so you can reduce risk and drive down the mistakes that get made from mundane tasks nobody wants to do?” Kinch said.

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Known as Project Enigma, the digital environment aims to allow Space Systems Command (SSC) to collaborate with different stakeholders in a multi-enclave, cloud-based shared network. The service awarded GDIT an $18 million other transaction authority agreement in 2023 to develop the prototype digital infrastructure, and the company recently received an extension contract to add more capabilities to the platform, according to Travis Dawson, GDIT’s senior director for Project Enigma.

“This resulting digital services ecosystem will further drive resilient, secure information-sharing to anyone, anywhere, at any time,” Dawson said in an interview with DefenseScoop.

GDIT hosted around 200 government stakeholders for a demonstration of Project Enigma earlier this month at Los Angeles Air Force Base, where the company showcased some of the digital environment’s capabilities, including digital engineering tools, a software factory with DevSecOps pipelines, an IT service management desk and more.

“Working in a government setting and having the ability to sit at one device and do classified and unclassified work on the same device is monumental,” Dawson said. “Rather than having to leave your device and go to a secure facility, login with some classified credentials, etc., you can do that from one device.”

During the event, the company also demonstrated an initial operating capability of Project Enigma’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSFC) offering. Approved by the National Security Agency, CSFC allows users to work on classified networks either in-office on a desktop version known as a “trusted thin client” or remotely on a laptop, Dawson said.

“We’re rolling out both of those … right now, putting the trusted clients on the desk within Space Systems Command in L.A.,” he said. “Those provide the ability to securely communicate in … multiple independent levels of security simultaneously from a single device, and it ultimately could be from a remote device.”

The company is currently focused on enabling work in secret-level classified environments. There is some appetite within the U.S. government to add top secret and special access programs (SAP), but the company has yet to begin work on those, Dawson said.

Moving forward on its extended contract, GDIT is currently working on expanding access to Project Enigma beyond those within SSC and incorporating connections with industry partners, he noted.

GDIT also plans to add more mission partners and more commercial cloud service providers to the platform, creating a classified multi-cloud environment for collaboration, he said. While Dawson couldn’t name which cloud service providers would be integrated, he noted that they are companies approved by the Defense Department’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract vehicle. Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon Web Services and Google compete for task orders under the JWCC program.

The addition of commercial cloud is part of a larger GDIT effort known as digital accelerators, Dawson said. The company offers a portfolio of tailored solutions from the commercial sector — from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity — that can be brought into different platforms.

“These are integrated commercial technologies. They have been cyber hardened, and they’re customizable,” Dawson explained. “The customers can go ahead and customize them to their needs and their requirements, and they don’t have to be locked into any type of technology.”

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Central to those efforts is the renewed vision for creating interoperable “Mission Partner Environments” (MPEs), asserts a new Scoop News Group report sponsored by GDIT. MPEs will allow the military and its trusted partners to communicate and share sensitive information securely and in real-time with allied partners.

MPEs represent a logical extension of the DOD’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) strategy to federate, jointly access and act upon relevant situational data. However, according to the report, that strategy is also fueling a new commitment to integrate mission and coalition partners into evolving technical standards, capabilities and policies — and toward a global IT environment rather than a U.S.-centric one.

The conflicts and humanitarian crises in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere across the globe have added new urgency to the need for near real-time information exchange across multiple domains. They have also heightened how modern warfare has taken on new dimensions in contrast to previous conflicts, according to the report, including:

• Hybrid Warfare Challenges — Conventional military tactics are being fused with cyber and information warfare. This blending of domains necessitates seamless data sharing to effectively counter and respond to such multifaceted threats.
• Information Warfare and Disinformation — Adversaries in the Ukraine conflict extensively employed disinformation campaigns to shape perceptions and destabilize regions. Interoperable systems enable partner nations to collectively analyze and counter such narratives, ensuring a more comprehensive and coordinated response.
• Dynamic Battlefield Tactics — The conflict has underscored the rapid evolution of the battlefield, where situational awareness is paramount. Interoperability enables partners to share real-time intelligence, adjust strategies and respond swiftly.
• Civil-Military Coordination — The Ukraine conflict has also highlighted the importance of integrating civilian and military efforts in a comprehensive approach. Interoperable systems facilitate coordination among various agencies, ensuring a more cohesive and effective response.

While the concept of MPEs is hardly new, what’s changing is the need to collapse and improve the speed and effectiveness of an expanding array of networks to share information securely with coalition partners, says Eric Tapp, a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Army, and now MPE lead at GDIT.

“MPEs are moving from this massive point-to-point connection on a standalone network to the point where eventually all warfighters working in NATO or working in a coalition environment will be able to communicate effectively and share data,” he explains in the report. What’s missing, he contends, “is the operational art and the art of deployment.” 

Tapp, who led MPE development at USCENTCOM before retiring from the Army, highlights “the path to modern MPEs” in the report, the critical need for data-centricity and why MPEs must be transport agnostic if they are to fulfill the vision for real-time data sharing with coalition partners.

Read the full report on developing modern ‘Mission Partner Environments” and how GDIT is helping enhance interoperability with global partners.

This article was produced by Scoop News Group for DefenseScoop and FedScoop and sponsored by GDIT.

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Zero trust, a concept and framework that assumes networks are already compromised and require constant monitoring and authentication to protect critical information, is typically thought of as an enterprise capability for more static networks. However, these capabilities will be needed to protect the integrity of data for units operating systems at the tactical edge, especially as the Army is moving to merge its tactical and enterprise networks into a single global unified system.

At the most basic level, what GDIT was tasked to do at the event — working primarily with U.S. Army Pacific and I Corps — was demonstrate the ability to share collaboration data with coalition partners based on country of origin and job function.

These tools included SharePoint and chat functions.

“What we were asked to do was effectively provide an access control gateway for a basic collaboration applications — SharePoint, chat, things like that — as a first step toward figuring out what mission partner environment data-sharing would look like in theater, particularly in a contested theater, like the” Indo-Pacific region, John Sahlin, vice president of cyber solutions at GDIT’s defense division, told DefenseScoop in an interview.  

So-called data sovereignty is one of the biggest needs for the U.S. military. Information and data is tightly held and classified, which often makes it difficult to share and operate alongside coalition partners. This is especially problematic as the U.S. military expects to fight as part of a multinational coalition. As a result, it needs a way to securely share data and authenticate the right users have access.

The need at the tactical level is to help share data when sharing agreements might be loose or non-existent.

“What happens at the tactical edge when I now have to share data, because of the mission with a country with whom we don’t have an established bilateral” or multilateral agreement with, Sahlin said. “We had to give the maneuver commander the ability to make those decisions and to make policy definition in the theater, but then have that not interfere with their ability to participate as part of the enterprise when we’re not in that [denied, disrupted, intermittent and limited] contested environment mode.”

GDIT’s involvement in providing a zero-trust capability at the tactical edge stemmed from conversations a couple of years ago as GDIT and its partner were working with the Defense Information Systems Agency on enterprise level zero-trust capabilities and began discussing how they could be applied to the tactical level with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

“We needed no kidding, a zero-trust capability in order to help Indo-Pacom support the mission of ultimately fighting in that theater. This exercise was the first step to doing that,” Sahlin said, referring to Talisman Sabre.

The initial focus was on brigade-sized units.

The scope was somewhat narrow at first: demonstrate identity, credential, and access management (ICAM) capabilities for U.S. and Australian defense forces. However, Sahlin said, that grew as the exercise played out.

“By the time we were done, we were integrating data-sharing with multiple foreign mission partners, basically making in-theater decisions about adding new countries to the mix. And we were doing integration with not only Army I Corps, but with the 1st Marine Division. This turned into a truly coalition and joint data-sharing platform,” he said. “Even though it was limited to collaboration apps, what we’re able to accomplish in a very short period of time was pretty darn stunning.”

He added that the work began to demonstrate the essential tenets of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), the Pentagon’s new concept for warfare that envisions how systems across the entire battlespace from all the military services and key international partners could be more effectively and holistically networked and connected to provide the right data to commanders for better and faster decision-making.

“If you think about the CJADC2 [concept] is supposed to be bringing sensors to shooters dynamically and making the maneuver commander in-theater decisions about how I’m going to bring new data sources into my environment and with whom I’m going to share what type of data,” Sahlin said.

The demonstration moved beyond ICAM capabilities and static access control by adding the ability to dynamically monitor user behavior and make changes on the fly while continuing to add more mission partners.

“If, for instance, you have access to a chat room because of your job function or the unit you belong to, but then you start behaving in a way that is inappropriate for that room, you no longer have access — not because of the statically defined roles and attributes, but, because of your behavior,” Sahlin, said, as an example.

“We were also fielding the capability to do data level segmentation and incorporate devices. We incorporated not only users, but non-person entities, like vehicles and things like that and paired them with the activity, so now you could do device-based access control or vehicle-based access control. We very quickly moved beyond the scope of what DOD defines as ICAM and started doing a lot more,” he said.

Additionally, GDIT and its partner sought to demonstrate that these capabilities can work in a denied, disrupted, intermittent and limited (DDIL) military operating environment.

“A lot of people who are saying, ‘Well, that’s great as an enterprise, but it completely breaks down at the tactical tiers. You can’t do this in a DDIL environment, for instance,’” Sahlin said, regarding preconceived notions prior to the exercise. “That was one of the things that we were able to demonstrate was the ability to do that in, let’s call it, challenged connectivity.”

Sahlin said he’s hopeful that GDIT gets awarded a contract to provide this to the Army, however, there are no immediate follow-on plans to continue testing this at other exercises.

“I would certainly recommend taking this to more complex exercise events, working with new data, not just collaboration data, but sensor data and other types of more complex data feeds that are more mission related,” he said. “I’d ideally like to take those to different AORs [geographic regions] as well. The Indo-Pacom AOR is super exciting and super important strategically, but we do operate in every AOR in the globe.”

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Yee retired from the Army in April as a two-star with his most recent assignment as assistant to the director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which manages a $13 billion IT and cybersecurity portfolio for the Pentagon.

Previous roles he held while serving in the military also included military deputy and chief information security officer for what was then the Army’s CIO/G-6 office. It has since split into two separate offices with the former led by a civilian and the latter billet a three-star.

In his new role at GDIT, Yee will be tasked with “driving growth and innovation” while also meeting customer needs to include providing specialized technology solutions and services in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, 5G and high-performance computing, the company said in a press release.

“Garrett brings a wealth of expertise and experience from a distinguished military career to our team,” Brian Sheridan, GDIT’s senior vice president for the defense division, said. “His extensive knowledge and background in global communications and IT systems will be a tremendous asset in supporting our customers’ missions.”

GDIT’s work for the Army includes modernization and sustainment as well as simulation-based training and logistics and supply chain management.

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