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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“This progress moves us closer to bi-directional, real-time data flow between the tactical edge and operational and strategic decision-makers,” CDAO officials wrote.

In response to questions about the document’s contents, a defense official confirmed on Wednesday that the office, in partnership with the joint force, recently closed out the thirteenth iteration of its Global Information Dominance Experiment (GIDE) series, which unfolded in conjunction with the Army’s Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PC-C5) event.

GIDE is rooted in the Defense Department’s aims to get new technologies and equipment into the hands of warfighters for iterative testing and refinement through distributed, digital experiments, sprints and military service-led exercises like PC-C5.

Early versions of the GIDE series launched in 2020 and were facilitated by U.S. Northern Command. But in 2022, Pentagon leadership under the Biden administration tasked the CDAO with revamping the effort to strategically enable capabilities that could help realize the U.S. military’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control warfighting construct. 

Since then, GIDE experiments have generally run approximately every 90 days.

In the CDAO document summarizing multiple takeaways from GIDE 13, officials wrote that PC-C5 “served as the first major exercise venue to demonstrate” the EDM line of effort, which the office awarded a production other transaction agreement for in fall 2024.

“EDM is a government-owned technology stack that enables tactical-level data distribution in disadvantaged, disconnected, intermittent and limited — or DDIL — communications environments through a resilient nodal architecture,” they wrote.

A defense official told DefenseScoop that the CDAO is deploying EDM nodes to tactical users and other key locations to ultimately assess the fusion of operational and tactical data and C2 capabilities.

In the EDM context, nodes essentially refer to physical points within the network that are typically near end users or information sources, where data is captured, processed, or stored. This allows for distributed, decentralized data transmission that could underpin future edge computing missions.

“Edge Data Mesh enables data integration and exchange across multiple networks and data formats, including in denied and degraded communications environments,” the defense official said.

“Core to this effort is the commitment to interoperability using Open DAGIR principles and deployed architectures. The government-owned software development kit allows rapid integration of mature and emerging systems and applications with the EDM architecture,” they added. 

Project Convergence is an Army-led experimentation venue that enables personnel from across the U.S. military services and key allies to train together and collaboratively work out various concepts for integration. Army officials have been transparent about their aims to see new capabilities stay with commands for continued use after Capstone 5. 

In the CDAO document, officials stated that the “Scenario B” portion of PC-C5 provided participants with “a critical opportunity to test and develop EDM interoperability with other mission command platforms in field conditions — which remained behind following the exercise’s completion and will continue to provide resilient tactical data transport in the [area of responsibility].”

Activities associated with that scenario were conducted in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility. They involved tech experiments with all of the service components at the combatant command level.

“We continue to demonstrate that one of the most effective ways to advance modern [command and control, or C2] capability is to exercise and experiment how we fight — on live networks, with live data, with daily users — and leaving behind capability after every exercise,” CDAO officials wrote.

Some of the other “wins” from GIDE 13 listed in the document include demonstrating the integration of third-party software into DOD’s data infrastructure, and integrating multiple third-party generative AI capabilities into existing operational contexts. 

“This significantly accelerates warfighters’ ability to process complex information, especially across maneuver, intelligence, fires, and logistics workflows, shortening decision-loops and ensuring we achieve decision advantage,” the document states.

The defense official did not answer DefenseScoop’s questions regarding the makers and use cases of those genAI assets that were tested in the GIDE 13 and PC-C5 experiments last month.

“GIDE events have incorporated GenAI capabilities supporting a variety of workflows. These capabilities are a subset of GIDE’s mission command software suite, supporting [combatant commands] outside GIDE experimentation, so operators can continue to refine how they use them without waiting for the next experiment,” the defense official said.

They confirmed that GIDE 14 will take place during the upcoming iteration of Pacific Sentry and “Joint Exercise SoCal in Indo-Pacom.”

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Project Convergence Capstone 5, hosted by the Army, is an experimentation venue for all the U.S. military services and key allies to train alongside each other and test concepts for integration. This is in line with one of the Pentagon’s top priorities called Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2, which envisions how systems across the entire battlespace could be more effectively and holistically networked to provide the right data to commanders, faster. The word “combined” in the parlance of CJADC2, refers to bringing foreign partners into the mix.

This year’s event will expand upon previous iterations, taking place in two scenarios: one in March at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, focused on enabling operations at the corps and below level along with joint and international partners, and the other in April along with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to exercise at the combatant command level with all service components.

The Indo-Pacific portion will be much more expansive than what the military did as part of last year’s Project Convergence capstone event.

“Last year, I said we had fake Guam, we had a simulation built that we had something we were defending and all the things that went along with it. This year, we’re taking all that stuff we did in tents at Camp Pendleton [in California] and we’re going to the Pacific. We’ll be operating out of Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Japan and Australia,” Brig. Gen. Zachary Miller, commander of Joint Modernization Command, said in an interview. “We’ll be doing the same type of things, but it’ll be at actual operational distances across the International Date Line, using the actual live networks. We’ll have all the live intelligence data, plus the simulation wrap that we put on it to do all the key activities, defense of Guam, offensive and defensive activities, etc.”

Miller said the Pacific portion is focused on transitioning from crisis to conflict — using a familiar real-world scenario of defending of U.S. and coalition territory, a nod to China’s ambitions to take Taiwan — involving theater-level offensive activity, such as strikes on maritime targets and land targets, while forces are continuing to try to gain intelligence and information about the enemy and defend themselves from adversary volleys.

At Fort Irwin, the exercise will be focused on more tactical operations that go beyond the day-one portion of conflict at the theater level once land, air, sea and special ops forces are introduced. This could be a Pacific or European scenario, Miller noted, as the technology the military is testing will be agnostic to theater.

As part of the exercise, there will be what Miller described as “leave behind” capabilities.

“When we’re done with this … everything from cross-combatant command coordination to target effector pairing at lower echelons, they will have capabilities they will keep that they will be able to fight with on the Indo-Pacom warfighting network. That’s a big deal,” Miller said.

Those leave-behind capabilities fall into two broad categories. The first is related to the minimum viable CJADC2 product that deals with cross-combatant command coordination and collaboration. This is focused on how forces make rapid decisions and understand resources across all the combatant commands in conjunction with the Joint Staff and senior policymakers in the nation’s capital.

This coordination across combat commands is another key difference in this year’s Project Convergence. It’s not just Indo-Pacom, but there will be a total of six combatant commands that are at some point touching the exercise. Officials recognize that a war in one combatant command’s area of responsibility will likely have global implications.

Those collaboration tools span around six or seven workflows, Miller said, which include the Maven Smart System as well as asset visibility and intelligence. There are also machine learning models that are built-in to help provide coordination and situational awareness across the various geographic regions.

The capability provides “the connective tissue so that we don’t have, when something happens, four different combatant commands producing PowerPoint presentations about what their recommendations are, that then the Joint Staff or somebody else has to somehow try to put together,” Miller said. “That’s a time-consuming process and the information gets stale in a hurry.”

The second set of capabilities is focused on the ability to conduct offensive actions from across all the services and coalition partners using any sensor available.

Most importantly, this capability is looking at how to strike heavily protected formations and targets.

“We have to understand, again, what are the totality of the effects we need? Some of it is we need this types of missiles or we this types of subsurface things,” Miller said. “Another part of it is things like how do we bring an enemy out of [emissions control] so we can make sure we know where they are for sure, [and] how we fuse different forms of intelligence rapidly.”

Officials are using the actual maritime strike concept from Indo-Pacom for the scenario.

Army objectives

When it comes to testing out Army-specific objectives for Project Convergence, Miller said the entire basis for the event is built around the forthcoming Army warfighting concept. The event will be based on a much more coherent scenario for how senior leaders think the Army will fight in the 2030 to 2040 timeframe.

Miller outlined four primary warfighting notions they’ll seek to explore during Capstone 5. The first is expanded maneuver aimed at how the joint force is thinking about time and space in all domains. Second is cross-domain fires, involving how to shoot and create effects across all domains of warfare. Third is formation-based layered protection, which is the idea of how to protect units in all domains, such as the electromagnetic spectrum, dispersion of command posts and countering unmanned aerial systems. Last is command and control and counter-C2, or preventing the adversary from being able to command their forces.

To test this out, the Army is looking at a battlefield framework that goes from corps all the way down to the platoon level.

The initiative will provide a unique opportunity to test an operational concept at the corps level in ways the Army typically hasn’t before.

Corps exercises are traditionally done at the command post level and are simulated. However, Project Convergence is providing a holistic training opportunity at all echelons similar to a combat training center rotation. Those events are typically focused on brigades and are the most realistic combat scenarios the Army can create for units to train. Project Convergence will essentially be a combat training center rotation for corps and below as opposed to last year’s event, which saw independent pockets of experimentation — such as medical — separate from other operations.

The Army will also be looking at how to do maneuver in a multi-dimensional aspect, to include within the electromagnetic spectrum.

While the Army can’t replicate all these dimensions and capabilities at the National Training Center, it has built a robust simulation environment intended to overwhelm participants with what they might expect during large-scale combat against a sophisticated nation-state adversary.

“If you’re in a command post, what you’re going to have in front of you is a very, very detailed, hectic, confusing picture of what is going on in the air and on the ground for any friendly and enemy UAS systems. Everybody’s trying to jam everybody else. One-way attack munitions. All the same time we’re trying to fire rockets and cannons through that space. We’re trying to fly manned [and] unmanned rotary-wing aircraft. We’re trying to resupply. All of the stuff that has to happen to do an operation,” Miller said. “How we think about planning and operating in that space is huge. We have technologies that are brought in to help us make sense of all that. We’re very focused on making sure commanders and staffs understand what they look like in the electromagnetic spectrum and what their vulnerabilities are [and] at the same time what the enemy’s vulnerabilities are. That’s a big focus.”

They’ll also be focusing on robotics and human-robot formations, particularly for breaching, to ensure human soldiers aren’t the first forces in contact with the adversary.

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Briefing the media in Stuttgart, Germany, during his first official overseas trip as the Pentagon chief, Hegseth shared new details about the Trump administration’s vision for DOGE-related disruption and modernization pursuits — and how they may or may not impact military and civilian personnel in the near term.

“There’s plenty of places where we want the keen eye of DOGE, but we’ll do it in coordination. We’re not going to do things that are to the detriment of American operational or tactical capabilities,” Hegseth said.

Mirroring promises he made on the campaign trail, President Donald Trump set DOGE up the same day he was officially sworn in, Jan. 20.

An executive order formalizing its establishment stated that the organization’s purpose is “to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Trump immediately tapped Musk — a politically vocal billionaire businessman whose company SpaceX has contracted with the Pentagon and other agencies — to steer DOGE under the designation of “special government employee.” 

Since its launch, the Musk-led team has attracted widespread attention for its controversial probes into federal hubs including the Treasury Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.

“USAID has got a lot of problems that I talked about with the troops — pursuing globalist agendas that don’t have a connection to ‘America First.’ That’s not the Defense Department. But we’re also not perfect either,” Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday.

He confirmed that he hopes to welcome Musk and the DOGE team to the Pentagon “very soon.”

“There are waste redundancies and headcounts in headquarters that need to be addressed. There’s just no doubt. Look at a lot of the climate programs that have been pursued at the Defense Department. [The DOD] is not in the business of climate change, solving the global thermostat. We’re in the business of deterring and winning wars,” Hegseth said. “We want to look forward to finding efficiencies, and many others [including] the way we acquire weapon systems.”

The new SecDef also responded to questions from reporters about the new administration’s strategic military aims in Africa, Europe and the Indo-Pacific.

“As far as external threats, there’s just no doubt the communist Chinese ambitions are robust. Their view of the world is quite different than ours, and whoever carries that mantle is going to set the tone for the 21st century,” he said. 

Hegseth emphasized that Trump “ran on being a peace president” and therefore does not want conflict with China under his leadership. 

“But being strong — peace through strength — is how you deter that. And we want to posture for that, just like we believe the Europeans alongside our support need to on the continent, as well,” he said. 

“The [People’s Republic of China’s] intentions are pernicious, not just in their part of the world, but also in South America and then on the African continent. And America’s posture there, along with allies and partners, is going to matter about contesting that space. So, it certainly remains a priority,” Hegseth added.

In response to reporters’ questions regarding whether the administration is planning to reduce U.S. troops’ presence abroad any time soon, he acknowledged that there’s a broad understanding across DOD that officials are going to review force posture around the world. 

However, he said there “are no plans right now in-the-making to cut anything.”

After meeting with senior military leaders from U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command at their joint headquarters in Germany on his first international trip as SecDef, Hegseth will head to Brussels, Belgium, to attend the NATO Defense Ministerial and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.

The defense secretary suggested that, in those engagements, he’ll push for “a rapid peace deal” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, and urge NATO allies to each spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense (though the U.S. has not pledged to make the same percentage level of investment).

“We’re going to have straight talk with our friends. This kind of urgency of this moment requires friends talking to friends about capabilities, about leadership, about stepping up, about burden-sharing and the incentives to say, ‘The European continent deserves to be free from any aggression, but it ought be those in the neighborhood investing the most in that individual and collective defense.’ That’s common sense, as the president talks a lot about. Common sense is you defend your neighborhood, and the Americans will come alongside you in helping in that defense if and when that happens. And I believe it will,” Hegseth said.

Before concluding the weeklong trip, Hegseth is slated to meet with his counterparts in Poland, where he plans to discuss furthering bilateral defense cooperation and deterrence opportunities along NATO’s eastern flank.

“This is a very important part of the world for us. The president feels that way as well,” Hegseth told reporters.

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Tensions between China and Taiwan have been on the rise in recent years — particularly since Chinese President Xi Jinping revealed his intent to ensure that the People’s Liberation Army would be prepared and equipped to “unify” (or invade) its smaller neighbor by 2027. Although Beijing sees the island as a piece of its territory, Taipei has been under the rule of its own separate government for roughly 75 years.

The security situation in the Indo-Pacific seems more uncertain this week, after Taiwan national security officials raised alarm that they’re detecting a large fleet of warships, high-altitude surveillance balloons and other markers of potential future aggression they associate with China’s military.

“We have remained focused on the [People’s Republic of China’s] activity for quite some time. That’s why the PRC has been our pacing challenge for the last four years. We’ve talked about their coercive actions in the region. And certainly, this latest activity is something that we will continue to monitor and make sure that that nobody does anything to change the status quo in the [Taiwan Strait],” Austin said during a press briefing to close out a multi-day trip to Japan, which will mark his final visit to the Indo-Pacific as the U.S. defense chief.

The secretary highlighted joint pursuits that America and Japan executed on during his tenure, including an ongoing push to collaboratively upgrade their militaries’ command-and-control frameworks and expanding their shared operational responsibilities.

Notably, the Taiwan Strait is considered one of the world’s most critical waterways for global shipping, as heaps of valuable trade assets pass through it every day. Beijing so far does not appear to have made it clear whether the capabilities its surging near the strait this week are part of a training exercise, military drill — or some other, more threatening scheme.

Responding to DefenseScoop’s questions in Japan Wednesday, Austin didn’t say if he’s spoken to his Taiwanese counterparts about the still-evolving incident, or if his team has any indications of China’s reasoning for the deployments near the island this week.

“Our policy hasn’t changed. We’ll continue to do what we can to help Taiwan acquire the means to defend itself. Again, that work continues on. But this latest activity — we’ll continue to monitor it and see what happens,” he said.

Austin also expressed confidence that the U.S. military will continue to have the capacity and focus to deter China and work with its allies to promote peace around the Indo-Pacific, even as conflicts around the Middle East and in Ukraine continue to expand.

“Throughout [the last four years], the PRC has been our pacing challenge. And we have done a number of things that — globally — can help our partners and allies,” he told DefenseScoop. “A combination of what we’ve done to help Ukraine defend itself and put more pressure on Russia, to help Israel do what it’s done, has made Russia weaker and Iran weaker as well. And so that has had an impact.”

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Here, he’ll spend the next three days engaging with U.S. troops and Japanese leaders about ongoing joint command-and-control upgrades the two militaries are pursuing, as well as a range of other nascent cooperative efforts designed to expand and modernize their shared arsenals of warfighting assets.

During an 11-hour flight overseas from California, a senior U.S. defense official traveling in Austin’s delegation briefed a small group of reporters on the demonstrations and activities the secretary and his team are set to observe and participate in at multiple military installations around the island nation.

“Throughout the next three days, we’re going to see a lot of ‘firsts’ in Japan,” the senior defense official said.

It might be his last visit to the close U.S. treaty ally as secretary, but this trip also marks Austin’s fourth official time in Japan while steering DOD.

In the senior defense official’s view, “it’s fitting that the secretary would travel again to Japan at the end of this year because his first overseas trip as secretary in March 2021 was to the Indo-Pacific — and his first foreign stop on that trip was Japan.”

On Monday, Austin will head to Yokosuka Naval Base and tour the USS George Washington, which has been docked there since last month and is the only forward-deployed U.S. aircraft carrier worldwide at this time.

According to the senior official, it’s also the first time, in this context, that the Navy’s forward-deployed carrier air wing includes fifth-generation aircraft, the stealthy F-35C.

“So, this really marks a very significant milestone for our force posture efforts in Japan. And importantly, it showcases just how we are continuously modernizing the alliance’s capabilities, especially since we’ve started in 2021,” they said.

Next up, on Tuesday, the secretary will head to Yokota Air Base, where U.S. Forces Japan is now headquartered.  

“He’s actually going to get a progress report on how we are doing on command and control, or C2, and the upgrades that they’re actually making underway,” the senior defense official explained.

At a 2+2 dialogue in Tokyo this summer, top U.S. and Japanese national security officials solidified a plan to strategically update their alliance’s C2 capabilities, largely by deepening defense industry and advanced technology cooperation, and enhancing cross-domain operations.

“We have to get this right — but we also have to do it the right way. So, I think Tuesday’s briefing is going to give [Austin] a chance to really take stock on what’s been happening, what’s progressed today, what’s expected of this ongoing effort,” the senior defense official said.

Further, Japan is currently developing its military’s own, first-ever Joint Operations Center, with aims to officially stand it up in March 2025. Austin and his counterparts are looking to discuss changes America is making to U.S. Forces Japan to ensure they can eventually link up with that new joint operational command in a way that they have not been able to before.

From there, Austin and the team will head to Yokohama North Dock to meet directly with the U.S. Army’s 5th Composite Watercraft Company.

“This is significant because this company was actually activated in February of this year. It’s not only the first time this is deployed — now, it’s the first time [any of the] companies deployed outside the United States,” the senior defense official told reporters.

And then to close out Tuesday’s packed schedule of events, Austin is set to attend an office call with Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and then a working dinner with Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani.

“These engagements are going to give the secretary the opportunity to really take stock of the progress that we’ve made together over the years, thank the two of them, really, for the partnership, and underscore the importance of the alliance as a cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” the official noted.

They and others have suggested to DefenseScoop that China’s intensifying employment of political, economic and military coercion to essentially reshape the international order in the Indo-Pacific — for its own benefit — is considered a major motivation for the U.S. and Japan’s steadily strengthening alliance in the region.

Finally, on Wednesday, Austin will conclude the trip after traveling to Camp Asaka to observe the multi-day military exercise Yama Sakura unfolding in real-time.

“This exercise has taken place every year since 1982, but this is the first time that we’re actually incorporating more and formal Australian participation, which is something that Secretary Austin and his counterparts in Australia and Japan announced a few weeks ago in Darwin,” the senior defense official said.

Over recent months, leaders within the trilateral security alliance between Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. have been hosting nascent discussions with their Japanese counterparts about cooperating on a project-by-project basis under AUKUS Pillar 2, which entails the co-development of disruptive warfighting technologies across six focus areas.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on Sunday regarding what capability areas may be prioritized first with Japan, the senior defense official confirmed consultations are ongoing, but declined to identify the specific technologies in question for nearest-term acceleration.

They committed to sharing more information after the trip to Tokyo ends.

“Importantly, we continue to work with Japan on deepening our trilateral and multilateral security partnerships — whether that’s with the Republic of Korea, Australia, the Philippines and others,” the senior defense official repeatedly emphasized during the briefing.

Notably, ahead of departing for this trip, DOD planners told reporters who were invited that there was a possibility that the secretary and his crew would also visit South Korea along the way. That changed after South Korea‘s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3 — and subsequently lifted it hours later after massive public outcry and lawmakers unanimously rejected the decree.

“When Secretary Austin meets with his counterparts, they often spend a good deal of time comparing assessments of major events in the region. And the trilateral relationship between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea has been a top tier priority for the Biden administration from the very start,” the senior defense official said in response to questions from DefenseScoop about whether the secretary planned to discuss the chaos and still-unfolding fallout in South Korea with his Japanese partners.

“And I think there is every reason to expect that all parties involved will remain quite committed — and certainly between Washington and Tokyo — quite committed to carrying on that progress,” they said.

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Additionally, the partnership — launched in 2021 between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. — is also in ongoing consultations with Canada, New Zealand and Korea to pinpoint possible new areas of cooperation under AUKUS Pillar 2, which entails the co-development of disruptive defense technologies across six focus areas, members of Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin’s team confirmed last week ahead of AUKUS’ ministerial meetings in London.

However, considering the technical intricacies and security sensitivities associated with AUKUS Pillar 1, which underpins Australia’s acquisition of its own nuclear-powered attack submarine force and the rotational basing of U.S. and U.K. subs with the Pacific nation, extending that work to other countries might occur “decades from now” and likely won’t be happening anytime soon, a U.S. military official told DefenseScoop.

“Pillar 1 is a complex, multi-year effort that requires significant detail, commitment, and investment from all participating countries. You can’t begin the process, get halfway, and then decide to include others,” the official explained.

In discussions leading up to, on the sidelines of and immediately after AUKUS’ third formal set of bi- and trilateral meetups, hosted in the United Kingdom last week, defense officials shed light on the possibilities they envision for expanding elements of the technology-enabling partnership in the years to come.

“Under Pillar 2, we do see opportunities to offer other countries the ability to work with us on specific projects. There are countries that want to work with us that bring a lot to the table, and on a project-by-project basis, we will endeavor to work with those countries, ensuring that all the right [security and intellectual property protections] are taking place,” Austin said during a press briefing alongside his AUKUS counterparts on Sept. 26.

“We don’t take that for granted,” the U.S. defense secretary added.

During the open press portions of the formal ministerial gathering — which took place in different locations across the historic Royal Naval War College — Austin and his Australian and British counterparts made multiple announcements on recent progress via AUKUS.

The military chiefs spotlighted recent momentum they’re building in terms of amending their respective export control regimes — and particularly reforms to the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) — to make it easier for the partners’ industry players to share software, hardware and technical data in a safe and compliant manner.

Among a variety of updates on Pillar 1, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and British Defense Secretary John Healey revealed that negotiations will soon kick off between their nations to produce a bilateral treaty outlining their co-development plans to generate the planned next-generation submarines, named SSN-AUKUS, in the years ahead.

Pillar 2 announcements included the results of the first-ever AUKUS innovation challenge, which was facilitated by and with the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.

Building on that success, Austin shared during the press conference that AUKUS innovation leads are now developing a “robust two-year agenda” to strengthen cooperation between their governments’ tech-focused centers of excellence.

“Over this past year, we’ve conducted several significant demonstrations and experiments across the ground, undersea, and along the electromagnetic spectrum. Taken together, all this progress will increase decision advantage for our warfighters. And we are excited to quickly field these new [and] advanced technologies across our forces,” Austin told reporters. 

“Our acquisition teams are driving integration throughout our industrial bases and our innovation ecosystems. This will maximize our combined ability to develop, produce, and sustain these capabilities together,” the U.S. defense secretary also said.

Since its rocky origin in Sept. 2021, AUKUS has been considered a key line of effort for “reinforcing deterrence” against China and promoting regional security within the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy. 

Some analysts have raised concerns that potential AUKUS expansion to include other nations — like New Zealand, Canada, Japan, or South Korea — might be viewed by the Chinese government as escalatory or provoke a response. 

As Austin alluded to, and other defense officials confirmed in chats with DefenseScoop, the partnership is looking to grow its capacity and reach, specifically for Pillar 2.

“We have a project that Japan is joining. And we’re in conversations with three other [countries],” a senior U.S. defense official said during a conversation previewing the trip. 

“But again, that’s exclusively on Pillar 2 and the emerging capabilities,” they emphasized.

When asked by DefenseScoop whether that could mean any alterations to the “AUKUS” acronym down the line, the senior official said: “I think we’ll probably keep the name AUKUS — but under the projects in Pillar 2, it’s open to looking for where we can work with additional partners to help achieve the outcomes of enabling the acceleration of critical advanced technologies.” 

At the same time, largely due to the highly sensitive nature of U.S.-built submarine combat systems technologies, it’s broadly been understood since AUKUS’ inception that the partnership would not be extended to other countries for any work or assets under Pillar 1.

“The only other country we’ve done this for is the U.K., highlighting the seriousness. At this stage, opening it to more countries isn’t possible — though that could be, decades from now,” a U.S. military official told DefenseScoop.

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These engagements will mark the 34th Australia-United States Ministerial Consultation, or AUSMIN, which is considered a key annual forum for deliberation between the long-standing allies.

During a call with reporters on Monday, two senior defense officials previewed the talks and spotlighted overarching aims to deepen the partnership between Washington and Canberra.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was first scheduled to meet bilaterally with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles at the Pentagon. On Tuesday, they were slated to join their diplomatic counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong, for the AUSMIN gathering in Annapolis, Maryland, a senior defense official said.

“These engagements will advance the historic progress of the alliance, including on force posture, defense industrial base integration, and collaboration on advanced capabilities,” the official added.

Broadly, the American and Australian militaries have fought together in all major conflicts since World War I — and the two nations’ bilateral defense ties are increasingly and exceptionally close. More recently, they’ve been working together to deter China’s growing influence in the western Pacific region and collaboratively tackle military-related supply chain challenges.

“On defense industrial cooperation, we’re making significant progress with Australia,” a senior defense official told reporters during the call. 

“By this December, we will work to conclude an agreement on precision guided missiles, or PrSM, that covers cooperative production, sustainment and follow-on development activities — and we will also establish a joint programs office to advance these activities in 2025 in Huntsville, Alabama,” they confirmed.  

Also on the docket for discussion is solidifying the United States’ plan to support Australia’s production of guided multiple launch rocket system missiles (GMLRS). 

“The two announcements that we will be making are that we will be pursuing memorandums of understanding for both GMLRS, and then separately for PrSM. Those MOUs will outline the mechanisms for co-production, including the intent to produce viable volumes of GMLRS for global consumption — and then for PrSM, outlining more of our way forward in terms of cooperative production, post-sustainment and follow-on development. So at this time, we don’t have further information to report, but once we have those MOUs negotiated — those will outline kind of our next steps,” a second senior defense official told reporters.

They further hinted at the military partners’ joint plans to integrate new capabilities and test new operational concepts during the next iteration of the Talisman Sabre exercise in 2025 — including amphibious training at Shoalwater Bay.

“We’re also working collaboratively on cutting-edge hypersonic technologies that will provide critical advantage to the warfighter. Australia and the United States are making significant progress in design and ground testing to develop an air-launched hypersonic weapon under the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment, or SCIFiRE, which is supporting the bilateral flight test program of the hypersonic attack cruise missile,” the senior defense official said.

The two nations are also aiming to enhance their “force posture cooperation in unprecedented ways,” according to the official.

The militaries are continuing more regular rotations of warfighting platforms, they noted, as well as expanding their logistics cooperation, including by assessing places where the U.S. could locate an enduring logistics support area in Queensland, Australia.

“At AUSMIN, we’ll be announcing new and longer-term operating locations in Australia for force posture cooperation … building upon additional infrastructure upgrades that are already underway at Australia’s northern air bases,” the senior defense official said. 

This high-level meetup notably comes on the heels of a 10-day series of engagements that Austin conducted with multiple partners around Asia.

Extending some of those discussions, this week the U.S. and Australia plan to look into ways they can grow cooperative maritime activities together with the Philippines, another American ally which is involved in maritime disputes with China.

Additionally, “we’re fostering greater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, cooperation by establishing more trilateral exercises and activities between the United States, Australia and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region,” the senior defense official said.

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“I think that largely, information operations are foundational for every operation that the department will do going forward. We have to be thinking about the information environment component of those activities,” Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads the National Security Agency, said at the Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, hosted by Vanderbilt University, on Wednesday.

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 Pentagon 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.

Additionally, given that much of this information capability will be delivered via cyber means, Cybercom will play a big role in the information environment going forward.

Haugh said the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides some real-world evidence of the importance of the information environment and how certain operations, such as strategic disclosures, can help thwart adversarial efforts.

“The fact that the United States really used sensitive intelligence to be able to demonstrate to the world what we believed Russia was going to do [and] when they were going to do it, too, really set the tone of this is what it means to be for the international dialogue. That was in and of itself a strategic use of information to be able to drive support,” he said regarding the strategic disclosures of intelligence ahead of Russia’s invasion.

Haugh noted that defense officials need to be mindful of how information capabilities will be used against U.S. forces.

“The other aspects, I think, from a military perspective that we need to be thinking about [is] how are we preparing our force for their likely involvement in a conflict and what will the information operations look like targeting our military force?” he said. “How well are we prepared for that? Is that an area that commanders talk about and they’re going to receive messages that are personalized on their own devices? Those are things we need to be thinking about how we prepare.”

During its 2014 incursion into Ukraine, Russia demonstrated the adept ability to target Ukrainian soldiers’ personal devices with tailored messages, something U.S forces took great interest in.

Information operations can also be conducted in the civilian or corporate worlds — something the U.S. government also must be mindful of.

“It’s not just within a military environment. I think we have seen some shifts in the cybercrime world that have already moved to information operations … Not just ransomware holding things at risk, but hacking and extracting information that is now held as a coercive tool for a ransom that is really about the disclosure of information,” Haugh explained. “It’s not just something that is within a military domain or between nations. This can be very personal for any business in the Western society that’s targeted by an actor and coerced based off of a hacking activity that will disclose information, [that] will either to be embarrassing or do some form of competitive advantage. It’s a part of our daily lives and it’s certainly going to be a part of military activities moving forward.”

When it comes to deterring China and being prepared for what Beijing could do, Haugh explained the U.S. must me mindful of how its potential adversary would use information capabilities.

“The area that I think that we have to really be mindful of, is thinking about what the information environment would look like in a crisis with China and how they would use the tools that are available to them in the information environment and what would be the implications of that, both within the region and with our population,” he said.

China’s use of misinformation and disinformation in the Pacific region and across the world to influence various populations, has concerned many.

“The execution of propaganda, misinformation and disinformation is a real concern for me. It should be a real concern for all of the United States. The [People’s Republic of China’s] ability to influence our information environment is concerning,” Adm. John Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said in March before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

One recent example he provided the committee was the notion being put forth that the West — and particularly, the U.S. — is in decline, while China is rising.

“That is Chinese propaganda. Our economy continues to grow, theirs is in the cellar. So, the actions in the information space, ultimately, it was being reported all over the United States. That’s the expansive ability of mis- and disinformation to influence the United States,” he said. “We ought to understand that it’s occurring and we ought to understand that our free and open media and the truth that we project is a critical value of the United States, it’s one to be protected. But we have to call out the mis- and disinformation to stop that ability to influence.”

Aquilino noted that the best way to combat behavior like this is to “expose the bad and amplify the good.”

“We have to understand how media is used in the People’s Republic of China, oh, by the way, and in Russia, because it’s a similar problem … But it is not what we see in our media. We have to understand what’s occurring in the differences, we have to value it and then we have to expose it,” he said.

The U.S. government has taken the approach of exposing adversary activities — be it by releasing malware samples they use, declassifying videos of their actions, or other methods — as a key way to beat back their malevolent efforts by shaming these actors and revealing their tactics so organizations can develop countermeasures, in addition to declassifying intelligence.

Aquilino’s successor told Congress as part of his confirmation process, that he plans to use information tools and work with other government agencies to maximize information capabilities to beat back and expose malign Chinese behavior.

“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,” Adm. Samuel Paparo wrote in responses to senators‘ questions. “It is critical that we continue highlighting malign PRC activities in the information environment.”

Paparo also indicated he may be inclined to use the strategic disclosure playbook that officials believed were successful against Russia, in the region against Chinese behavior.

“[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.

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