The command’s research-and-development budget proposal includes $117.2 million under a portfolio called “Data and Sensors.” In last year’s budget release, the command anticipated spending just $20.8 million in FY26 in the future years defense program for that same portfolio. The fiscal 2025 request for the portfolio was $21 million.

According to budget justification documents, the increased funding would go toward cyber mission monitoring capabilities for the Department of Defense Information Network and expand operational technology asset installation at other Indo-Pacom defense critical infrastructure networks and systems. Moreover, the budget activity continues whole-of-government collaboration and coordination for sensor deployment, data sharing and lessons learned, and includes an expanded submarine cable landing monitoring capability, sensor placement in key networks and maintenance of automated alert capabilities to operators.

The documents also note that beginning in fiscal 2024 the DOD added funds within the portfolio for Indo-Pacom’s regional component of the National Defense Strategy to maintain and restore a comparative military advantage. Cybercom added resources and manpower to support the maturation and fielding of monitoring capabilities to hunt and trap adversaries across the DODIN’s priority edge devices and procure new hardware.

The portfolio’s enhanced sensing efforts are part of the larger Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a key effort to provide funding carveouts for Indo-Pacom to bolster its posture relative to China, and expand low-level network sensing and defense for key networks in the region, the documents state.

More specifically, the enhanced sensing investments in Cybercom’s budget request portfolio include support for specialized Indo-Pacom Low-Level Network Sensing and Defense capability, data feed, analytic resources and increased efforts to discover and characterize adversary networks — all of which are necessary to maintain or restore comparative military advantage and reduce risk of contingency plans in support of U.S. national security interests, according to the documents.

The investments have already supported the transition of existing DOD projects to Cybercom and expansion of new sensing and data analytic tools to strengthen the cyberspace defensive posture of Indo-Pacom networks, with a specific focus on defense critical infrastructure in Guam.

The budget touts examples of this, including the employment of over 3,000 operational technology assets that resulted in a 52 percent reduction in malicious and anomalous behavior in the environment and a 32 percent decrease in known vulnerabilities to key assets such as firewalls, switches and routers, to achieve 76 percent adherence to MOSAICS frameworks in industrial control systems.

Cybercom’s cyber protection teams — defensive teams focused on hunting adversaries within the network — performed 31 threat-hunting missions and investigated 58 additional artifacts across multiple networks, informed by the investments made in the portfolio. Those teams worked with local defenders within Indo-Pacom to bolster their tactics, techniques and procedures.

The command noted that that the work established real-time insight into the submarine cable landing in Guam to effectively monitor network traffic transiting to and from the island, including automated alert and visual interface tools for operators.

The scope is also different from the previous budget request, in which Cybercom articulated that most of the portfolio spending would go towards deployable sensors and the “fly away” kits that the command’s cyber protection teams use. Those teams sometimes deploy to sites locally that incur breaches — hence the need for specialized kits.

The funding for 2025, according to previous budget documents, was partially planned to go towards downselecting awardees for Joint Cyber Hunt Kits, standardized fly-away kits for both cyber protection teams and hunt-forward missions that involve physically sending teams to foreign countries to hunt for threats on their networks at the invitation of host nations.

Cybercom’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal moved funding for the Joint Cyber Hunt Kits to the procurement portion. A prototype effort was slated to be completed in June 2025, and a review of the capability was expected completed by August 2025 with a production award scheduled for FY26, the documents state.

In DOD parlance, China is the pacing threat. It has become more brazen in intrusions and probes into U.S. and defense networks, particularly in maritime or port environments to potentially limit an American military mobilization response if Chinese leaders decide to invade Taiwan.

Guam, a key U.S. military outpost, has been a top target for Beijing in recent years. Chinese hackers targeted critical infrastructure there, burrowing deep inside a couple of years ago and startling experts who referred to it as one of the largest cyber espionage campaigns against America.  

The group that conducted the operation has been referred to as Volt Typhoon, one of a number of cyber players from China that have been discovered in U.S. networks, troubling American officials. Volt Typhoon was discovered inside U.S. critical infrastructure using a technique in the cybersecurity world called “living off the land,” which means it’s using legitimate tools organic to the systems for malicious purposes.

What has particularly alarmed officials regarding Volt Typhoon is the paradigm shift of Chinese threats moving from espionage and intellectual property theft to holding critical infrastructure at risk.

In fiscal 2026, Cybercom plans to field hardware security capabilities and support sustainment of existing capabilities installed in fiscal 2024 and 2025, according the budget documents. It will also seek to implement improved or additional tools and tradecraft to keep pace with the dynamic and evolving threat landscape.

The 2026 funding request aims to complete full asset inventory to operational technology assets on Guam defense critical infrastructure for comprehensive and enduring monitoring to reduce malicious activity, address known vulnerabilities and ensure adherence to MOSAICS framework for industrial control systems, the documents state.

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DIU — a Silicon Valley-headquartered organization which has embedded personnel at Indo-Pacom and Eucom to help tackle some of the combatant commands’ tech-related challenges.

On Wednesday, DIU announced that Scale AI was awarded a prototype contract for the new Thunderforge capability, which will include the company’s agentic applications, Anduril’s Lattice software platform and Microsoft’s large language model technology.

“The Thunderforge technology solution will provide AI-assisted planning capabilities, decision support tools, and automated workflows, enabling military planners to navigate evolving operational environments. By leveraging advanced large language models (LLMs), AI-driven simulations, and interactive agent-based wargaming, Thunderforge will enhance how the U.S. military prepares for and executes operations,” the unit said in a release.

DIU issued a solicitation for the program last year via its commercial solutions opening contracting mechanism.

“The joint planning process is complex, time-consuming, and resource-intensive. Planners and other staff members must synthesize large amounts of information from diverse sources, consider multiple courses of action (COA), and produce detailed operational plans and orders – often under significant time pressure. As the operational environment becomes more complex and dynamic, there is a need to accelerate and enhance joint planning capabilities while maintaining rigor and human judgment,” the document stated.

In a statement Wednesday, Bryce Goodman, Thunderforge program lead and contractor with DIU, noted that current military planning processes rely on decades-old technology and methodologies.

The U.S. military wants new tech that can quickly ingest, process and summarize large volumes of information relevant to military planning; identify key insights, patterns and relationships; produce draft operations plans, concept plans and operations orders; and perform automated wargaming of courses of action and provide comparative analysis of advantages, disadvantages and risks.

“Our AI solutions will transform today’s military operating process and modernize American defense. Working together with DIU, Combatant Commands, and our industry partners, we will lead the Joint Force in integrating AI into operational decision-making. DIU’s enhanced speed will provide our nation’s military leaders with the greatest technological advantage,” Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang said in a statement.

According to DIU, initial deployments of the system to Indo-Pacom and Eucom are expected to support “mission-critical” planning activities such as campaign development, theater-wide resource allocation and strategic assessment.

If the tech meets expectations, plans call for scaling the Thunderforge capability across the U.S. military’s combatant commands in the future.

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At the military base in Hawaii, Beck and Paparo engaged with key members of the command and DIU’s team of embeds currently based there “to discuss key initiatives, including Replicator,” a Defense Department spokesperson confirmed in an email on Friday.

“Beck and the DIU team also visited the Hawaii Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub, and met with a large group of commercial tech and DOD partners from Hawaii and elsewhere,” they told DefenseScoop. 

DIU was first launched in 2015 to help Pentagon components field commercial technologies to the military more quickly and less costly than traditional government buying methods allowed.

Since then, the unit has blossomed to build foundational bridges between DOD and the tech sector, and simultaneously accelerated dual-use prototypes. Now — under Beck’s leadership — it’s been elevated and received major funding and staffing boosts to further evolve into what he calls “DIU 3.0”.

Through this new strategic approach, the innovation hub is embedding members of its team “at the most critical nodes of warfighter demand in order to identify priorities, and maximize the opportunities for commercially derived technologies to close capability gaps with the focus, speed, and scale required to deter major conflict or win if forced to fight,” the DOD spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

Beck visits Indo-Pacom “frequently in support of DIU’s ongoing work” to realize his new 3.0 strategy, they said. 

“The DIU team is focused on bringing the commercial technology in artificial intelligence, autonomy, space, human systems, energy, cyber/telecom, and emerging areas like quantum to bear in support of Indo-Pacom’s most critical priorities, including the Joint Fires Network among other efforts,” the spokesperson added.

DIU is also a major contributor in the Pentagon’s plans to carry out Replicator. 

Via the first stage of that high-stakes initiative, DOD seeks to rapidly field thousands of multi-domain autonomous systems by August 2025 to offset China’s massive military buildup. Due to its geographic area of responsibility, Indo-Pacom is considered the Pentagon’s main, early deployer of Replicator systems.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop, the DOD spokesperson declined to elaborate on any details of the Replicator-centered discussions Beck, Paparo and their teams held this week.

However, regarding the broader subject of autonomy they did confirm that “during the visit, the team participated in live testing of maritime domain capabilities” as part of DIU’s Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicles program supporting the U.S. Navy. 

“LDUUV is a great example of speed to capability, as the effort started last July with our Navy partners, and just one year later is already conducting live testing with operational users,” the spokesperson said. “Developing undersea warfare capabilities of the kind highlighted by LDUUV is just one effort in DIU’s broader autonomy portfolio of projects, which provide novel commercial solutions to the warfighter.”

Separately this week — back around the unit’s headquarters in Mountain View, California — other DIU leaders also hosted what the official called “a synchronization of Office of the Secretary of Defense-level and Service test and evaluation components.”

The ultimate aim of that event was to “to organize and execute a development and operational testing and evaluation roadmap in the [unmanned systems space], taking advantage of the rapid pace of commercial hardware and software development in support of this critical priority,” the spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

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The Joint Fires Network is a prototyping effort that addresses the immediate needs of combatant commands while serving as a pathfinder for the broader Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJAD2) effort, which envisions how systems across the entire battlespace from all services and key international partners could be more effectively and holistically networked to provide the right data to commanders, faster.

The system will serve as a battle management platform and display real-time, fused, actionable threat information to joint and partner forces, according to fiscal 2025 budget documents recently released by the Department of Defense.

“Geographically dispersed commanders will share a common understanding of the battlespace simultaneously, fed by platform sensors that can provide targeting guidance to key weapons systems,” the documents state. “Coupled with the lethality of current and future munitions, joint force commanders will use JFN to underpin conventional deterrence and achieve decision advantage for combat success.”

Testifying before Congress this week, outgoing Indo-Pacom chief Adm. John Aquilino explained how he’s trying to leverage various efforts across the department to improve the command’s ability to hit enemy targets and deny their actions when discovered.

“The approach we’ve taken with the Joint Fires Network is to pull together a best-of-breed approach of Project Convergence from the Army, Overmatch from the Navy and Marine Corps and then ABMS from the Air Force along with the DARPA aspect of Assault Breaker II, to pull all those together and deliver a real near-time, best-of-breed solution to be able to command and control the joint force and ultimately close the kill chain,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday. “The way we have articulated it and linked it with the building … is we’re going to provide some insights into the further development of CJADC2 as it goes forward.”

Assault Breaker II, modeled after the initial effort in 1978, aims to alter how the U.S. military thinks about designing, buying and deploying systems in the future using existing and emerging technologies across the services and commercial industry to address capability gaps. Budget documents note it’s critical to designing and fielding near-, mid- and far-term solutions to outpace adversaries.

Indo-Pacom asked Congress for an additional $122.7 million for the Joint Fires Network in its unfunded priorities list for fiscal 2025 to accelerate the development of the battle management system.

To some, these various service initiatives have raised concerns that the ultimate aim of the effort — true joint integration of systems, networks, sensors and weapons — will still be too stovepiped because they’re run by the services and not the combatant commands, which are charged with integrating the services’ capabilities in a joint fashion.

“The way that you have discussed the Joint Fires Network makes it sound like an actual joint solution to the problem set that the department has identified in which the JADC2 is supposed to solve … My question to you relates to my concern that each service is apparently designing its own approach to the Joint All-Domain Command and Control program. We’re talking air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. How and when do you see the department bringing all of these separate lines of effort together?” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-N.D., asked Aquilino.

“From the combatant command perspective, we don’t do anything in stovepipes. We fight as a joint force,” Aquilino quipped.

He added that the command has participated in the Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) — run by the Chief Digital and AI Office to test, optimize and integrate the department’s data systems with artificial intelligence — and also pulled in efforts from Central Command and what European Command has done in support of Ukraine.

“We’re going to demonstrate the first version of that, of JFN, in Valiant Shield in [20]24,” Aquilino told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday, telling senators a day later that it will provide useful insights for the Pentagon’s ongoing CJADC2 efforts.

“We think we’ll be informative, but ultimately, I’m going to produce a prototype, if you will, that will be demonstrated in our next big exercise this year, to see where we are, what we’re doing, is it right, is it at scale,” he said. “Our lens is this is a best of breed and a pretty good indicator on what we think the future should look like.”

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks earlier this year announced a minimum viable product for CJADC2, but declined to offer details on what it is, where it’s deployed or what it does — citing classification concerns.

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Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks launched the Accelerating Data and AI (ADA) initiative, which is now CDAO led, in 2021 as a systematized plan to enable combatant commands to better capture and curate usable data to accelerate decision-making and inform their increasingly complex operations. 

Since then, CDAO leaders have hinted at various ADA-aligned successes but they’ve largely remained tight-lipped regarding who the officials dispatched to the combatant commands are, those individuals’ skill sets, and other seemingly basic details about how the initiative is ultimately unfolding.

“We’ve placed permanent [General Schedule-grade 15, or GS-15 officials with data science and algorithmic expertise] inside the combatant commands,” Deputy CDAO Margie Palmieri told DefenseScoop on the sidelines of a Hudson Institute event in January.

She also briefly noted then that the embeds have been conducting digital readiness assessments for each of the commands, which essentially audit associated processes, technology deployments and other factors.

After repeated inquiries from DefenseScoop since that conversation, a CDAO spokesperson on Thursday confirmed that Dan Tadevich is the senior representative embedded at Indo-Pacom.

The spokesperson did not provide any further information regarding his current responsibilities in this capacity, outputs so far, or professional background. 

They also declined to name any other CDAO embeds operating at other combatant commands.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Tadevich joined the CDAO in March 2022 and previously served as an Indo-Pacom operational data team lead, C3I systems engineer for MITRE, Pacific Air Forces knowledge management chief, and military deputy to the principal deputy for research in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, among other positions. 

Tadevich didn’t respond to a request for comment on LinkedIn.

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The comments come from Adm. Samuel Paparo, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the next commander of Indo-Pacific Command. Indo-Pacom will be at the forefront of countering Chinese activities that Washington opposes, including efforts to weaken U.S. influence and coerce other nations.

Paparo currently serves as the commander of Pacific Fleet, giving him requisite experience and knowledge in the region.

In written answers to senators’ questions as part of his confirmation process last week, Paparo vowed to utilize the power of information and integrate it into U.S. military operations.

“Information-related capabilities are critical in combating malign behavior. USINDOPACOM has a broad mix of information-related capabilities, including military information support operations and military deception operations, which are designed to change an adversary’s attitudes and behaviors. When employed effectively and in coordination with other U.S. government stakeholders, these capabilities provide USINDOPACOM opportunities to enhance U.S. national security interests,” he wrote.

“We must also employ information-related capabilities to transparently bring attention to malign behavior, such as the United States and our partners publicly releasing video of coercive and risky [People’s Liberation Army] intercepts of our lawfully operating ships and aircraft. If confirmed, I will assess current information-related capabilities and consider all viable options to improve our information operations posture and readiness,” he added.

In recent years, adversaries have sought to exploit the information environment through disinformation, misinformation, information ops and other activities as a means of undermining U.S. and allied interests without having to confront them in direct military conflict.

The Department of Defense has sought to play catch-up of sorts, releasing updates to doctrine and strategy — and the services themselves issuing their own guidance within the information realm.

The DOD has also shifted its mindset in recent years to a stance of perpetual competition. Adversaries have viewed conflict on a continuum while the U.S. has traditionally viewed it as a binary state of either war or peace. The Joint Concept for Competing, released last year, formally recognizes that the department is engaged in a competition on a daily basis below the threshold of all-out conflict.

Information is an important tool in this realm.

Paparo told senators he plans to use information in a similar vein as other organizations have in the past, disclosing and exposing problematic behavior.

“It is critical that we continue highlighting malign [People’s Republic of China] activities in the information environment,” he said. “The PRC’s militarization in the region and aggressive activities are unlawful and destabilizing. PRC actions threaten the sovereignty of our allies and partners, limit freedom of navigation, and undermine regional stability.”

A few years ago, the U.S. came to the conclusion that exposing adversary activities — be it by releasing malware samples they use, declassifying videos of their actions, or other methods — was a key way to beat back their malevolent efforts. Through public release, the hope was to shame these actors and reveal their tactics so organizations could develop countermeasures.

Relatedly, a playbook used at the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 could also be applied in the Pacific region to help aid Taiwan in the event of Chinese military action against the island. Paparo said the declassification of sensitive intelligence could be an important tool to thwart Beijing.

The U.S. intelligence community declassified and released to the world troves of intelligence to undercut Russia’s narrative that it wasn’t massing troops or planning to invade Ukraine — a tactic many officials believe was successful and something that is likely here to stay.  

“[W]e learned how the timely sharing of previously classified intelligence with our partners and the public revealed Russia’s imminent plans for an attack and helped spur the international community to act in support of Ukraine. Timely transparency can be an effective tool to counter aggression,” Paparo said. A similar tactic could be used to expose China’s activity towards Taiwan, he added, suggesting he could provide more details to lawmakers in a classified setting.

The admiral also recognized that information capabilities — as well as the military — are tools within the broader scope of the government, requiring tight linkages with other departments and organizations.

“Competing with the PRC requires strengthening, aligning, and strategically employing all elements of national power. We must tirelessly and purposefully compete in economic, diplomatic, military, and information spaces to be effective against the PRC,” he wrote. “DoD efforts throughout the information environment cross traditional department and agency lines. I fully recognize the military represents only one tool of national power. We must be fully integrated within the whole of government to maximize our collective information related capabilities.”

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The “multi-classification” event, dubbed BRAVO 11 Bits2Effects, is scheduled to take place Feb. 5-9 in Oahu, where U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is headquartered.

The hackathon “is seeking to produce solutions to combatant command challenges utilizing Indo-Pacific operational theater data. BRAVO utilizes a permissive software development environment that permits the co-mingling of classified and protected data with untrusted open-source and commercial software otherwise not approved for production systems within minutes,” according to a DOD press release.

The hosts include Indo-Pacom, the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), Defense Innovation Unit, U.S. Army Pacific Command and the Air Force.

“Prior hackathons have produced prototypes influencing major Defense Department programs in areas including large language models, space launch, flight telemetry and biometrics, unmanned systems, personnel recovery, security classification, sensing and targeting, and battle damage assessment among others,” the release noted.

In September, the Pentagon announced that it was standing up two BRAVO AI battle labs at U.S. European Command and Indo-Pacific Command to develop and test new data-enabled capabilities.

A website has been set up where people will be able to apply to participate in the first hackathon at the Indo-Pacom battle lab in one of three roles: hacker, subject matter expert, or supporter.

All applicants can seek to be hackers including “project builders with varying skill sets and experience, including operational and warfighter expertise, software development, data science, machine learning, design and user interface/user design, data visualization, and product management,” according to the release.

Government employees and government contractors who lead teams with relevant technology know-how, may apply for the subject matter expert positions. Federal workers and contractors can also seek to provide administrative support for the event, per the release.

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On Monday, the Indo-Pacom chief announced the establishment of the new Joint Mission Accelerator Directorate, which he’s forming in the months leading up to his retirement from the command to help it seriously tackle what he said is China’s “system-of-systems approach through all domains to attempt to deny every advantage that we have.” 

“The speed and acceleration that they have shown — and they are delivering, right, when you talk about outposts — we all look at the Chinese and understand, truly, where they are and what they’re doing. It’s the largest military buildup since World War II, both in conventional forces and its strategic nuclear” arsenal, the commander said at the NDIA Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and expo.

Broadly, he’s shaping this new directorate to “pull in” officials and assets from Pentagon elements that are hyper-focused on technology acceleration — like the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), among others — to directly support Indo-Pacom’s critical mission needs and pursuits by expediting their use of innovative capabilities. 

The overarching intent is that, via this new hub, those collaborating organizations can help synchronize technologies for speedier use in the command’s major programs, including its “Stormbreaker” AI-enabled wargaming and planning initiative and the in-the-works multi-domain Joint Fires Network.

Aquilino confirmed that he’s spent a lot of time with DIU Director Doug Beck over the last several months puzzling out how to best shape and staff the envisioned Joint Mission Accelerator Directorate.

To start, DIU officials are embedding with the command in Hawaii, he said, to “help facilitate and drive this.”

“For me, I don’t care if it’s off-the-shelf, I don’t care if it was built before, I don’t care if it’s brand new technology,” Aquilino said. “Let’s just be clear, this is about delivering outcomes. So, we’re ready to take whatever you got.”

He added: “Joint Fires Network is going to be delivered today, and would be able to take advances — whether they be the AI tools and additional ISR  … So, the design is to be able to plug in anything that delivers effects and then push it out through applications that are effective for the user.”

Beyond that though, the commander did not get deep into any specifics regarding the directorate’s near-term operations, or how it will be structured and funded.

During a meeting with reporters at the conference, former Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist told DefenseScoop that the directorate’s creation in his view demonstrates how the department and its leaders are beginning to fully realize that the best way to understand the value of emerging technologies and promising prototypes is to “get it in the hands of users faster.”

“To use an example — the original Predator [drone] came out of DARPA — and it wasn’t enthusiastically embraced by the department, under the theory that ‘why do I need something that flies that doesn’t have a pilot?’” Norquist, who now serves as president and CEO of NDIA, said.

However, members of Congress continued to push the prototype, and it went through DOD’s test and evaluation process. “Then it went to [U.S. Central Command],” Norquist said. There, the remotely piloted system proved its value for warfighters.

“What [Adm. Aquilino] is wisely doing is pulling in all these other offices that live in this world and have exposure to things he hasn’t seen — and saying, ‘Come help me look at these technologies and experiment so that I can signal back to the leadership in the department, what would really make a difference in my life,’” Norquist told DefenseScoop.

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The Philippines occupies a strategic position in the Asia-Pacific where the U.S. and China are competing for influence. Washington and Manila already have a mutual defense treaty dating back to 1951. But the new agreement comes as both nations are concerned about Chinese aggression.

The new guidelines aim to “guide priority areas of defense cooperation to address both conventional and non-conventional security challenges of shared concern to the United States and the Philippines.”

One of those priorities is to “improve cyber defense and cyber security cooperation to secure critical infrastructure and build protection against attacks emanating from state and non-state actors by strengthening interoperability” between U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and the armed forces of the Philippines,” as well as “fostering collaboration with other relevant departments and agencies.”

Bilateral military exercises and other activities will focus not only on deterring and countering armed attacks by ground, air, maritime, or amphibious forces on either country in the Asia-Pacific — including in the highly contested South China Sea — but also address threats in space and cyberspace, “while expanding the scope, scale, and complexity of such exercises and training,” per the guidelines.

Notably, the agreement also calls for partnering on securing classified information. That arrangement comes after troves of classified U.S. national security documents were posted online — allegedly by a U.S. service member — on social platforms such as Discord.

In the wake of the leaks, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has launched a “comprehensive” review of the Pentagon’s security programs, policies and procedures for protecting that type of data. Pentagon CIO John Sherman also issued a “data call” aimed at ensuring DOD components are vigilant about who has access to sensitive information. Sherman also spoke Wednesday about how a zero-trust security architecture could have prevented the leaks.

Going forward, Washington and Manila will “consult on policies, practices, and procedures related to the protection of defense and military classified information in support of the swift conclusion of a General Security of Military Information Agreement,” according to the bilateral guidelines agreed to on Wednesday.

The allies are looking at a wide range of areas for additional collaboration, including budget planning for the Philippines and procuring military equipment.

The two nations plan to develop a “security sector assistance roadmap” that will “identify priority defense platforms and force packages over the next five years to bolster our combined capabilities and capacity to resist coercion and deter aggression.”

The procurement of interoperable systems is to be prioritized and aided through a variety of mechanisms including U.S. foreign military financing, foreign military sales and excess defense articles programs — as well as Manila’s defense acquisition and funding initiatives.

During a meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Austin “reaffirmed the Department’s commitment to bolstering the Philippines’ defense capabilities as the allies develop a Security Sector Assistance Roadmap to guide shared defense modernization investments over the next five to 10 years. Secretary Austin highlighted near-term plans for the United States to transfer several defense platforms to the Philippines to support the AFP’s continued modernization efforts,” Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a readout of the engagement.

During a background briefing with reporters via teleconference on Tuesday, a senior U.S. defense official told DefenseScoop that the development of the roadmap is already “underway.”

“In terms of completion, I don’t think we have publicly put a date on that — so I’m hesitant to do one in this call. But what I will say is you should assume we are working on it with the utmost haste and hope to have that out as soon as possible,” the official said.

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The task forces are designed to be in constant contact with adversaries during the so-called competition phase of conflict. They are capable of deep sensing and long-range precision fires. The so-called backbone of these task forces are their Multi-Domain Effects Battalions, formerly called I2CEWS because they include intelligence, information, cyber, electronic warfare and space capabilities and personnel.

The first MDTF was created in 2017 while the 3^rd MDTF, also located in the Pacific, was just activated in late September. The other MDTF, activated last year, is based in Europe and focuses on that region. The fact that two of the Army’s three MDTFs are focused on the Pacific is reflective of the Defense Department’s prioritization of that region as it seeks to compete with China, which DOD views as the top military threat to the U.S.

“The Multi-Domain Task Force is the task force that is going to continue to do the target development for the joint force and it’s going to be able to fuse together information at speeds and then be able to share that with other joint assets and other joint capabilities, which puts the Army and the Multi-domain Task Force as a central and critical role in joint targeting,” Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of Army Pacific, said Wednesday during a presentation at AUSA’s annual convention in Washington. “The joint advances that are made by the Multi-Domain Task Force are critical in land contributions to the joint force for targeting.”

Others explained how the task forces seek to provide the maximum amount of dilemmas for the enemy while providing maximum capabilities for the joint force commander.

“We are inherently joint working for that joint force commander to neutralize portions of that into [the anti-access/area denial] network to enable that joint freedom of action,” said Brig. Gen. Bernard Harrington, commander of 1^st MDTF.

The task forces provide additional tools to the joint force along with the other services.

“We bring increased capacity and complementary capability to the joint force in the Pacific. The analogy I think of is a collection of archers and a quiver of arrows,” Col. David Zinn, commander of 3^rd MDTF, said. “The Navy archers, they have some Navy arrows, they can choose to release those arrows. Then the Air Force archers, well, they have some Air Force arrows. Our 1^st Multi-Domain Task Force, they have some Army arrows in that quiver. What we bring, we bring our additional arrows to the quiver, that’s the increased capacity. And then our arrows have different effects and that’s the complementary capability that we bring.”

Flynn explained that the first task force was instrumental in allowing the Army to transform through its new doctrine — multi-domain operations — which became official this week. A complete rewrite to how the Army conducts ops — replacing Air-Land Battle that stemmed from the Vietnam War — the new doctrine describes combining and integrating land, air, maritime, space and cyber in all facets of operations.

“The important part here is that for the Army, it allows us an organization, the signature organization that is applying new capabilities against concepts, with doctrine and the combination of the organization, the capabilities, the process. And then the inclusion of the advanced type of capabilities that we have coming, is going to give us an edge globally,” Flynn said. “That’s particularly true, I think, in the Indo-Pacific because the geometry of that geography out there is part of the landscape that we have to deal with.”

Officials said that if an MDTF isn’t able to meet a need or requirement, they can pull in other organizations to augment their ability to achieve an effect at a certain time.

“What the Army has done, in this case, is package these capabilities in a single headquarters, single task force with space, cyber electromagnetic activities, all under the headquarters of a Multi-Domain Task Force, which is a little bit different than in some ways how any one of the organizations you talked about might operate,” Zinn told reporters at the conference.

As an ever present organization, the MDTF is constantly looking to break the networks of adversary systems and capabilities by using intelligence assets, long-range sensing, and kinetic and non-kinetic effects.

“As we look at our intelligence collection, we start looking at what elements of that A2/AD network can we potentially target in order to create a window of opportunity for the joint force commander to have freedom of action,” Harrington said.

For example, if an opponent’s surface vessel is operating somewhere in the South or East China Seas, “we do a detailed assessment of that adversary vessel and we look at what are those access vectors that we can use some of our long-range precision effects and look to disconnect that vessel from the rest of its A2/AD network, and seek to neutralize its capability of conducting the mission that it was given,” he said.

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