Page 2 - Mark Kitz News Today

This year Breaking Defense heard straight from some top network and tech officials in the Pentagon about their ambitious plans.

What’s missing is the ability to rapidly configure existing gear and networks to a given mission and environment.

The unified network and related operations promises global connectivity and fewer isolated pathways to monitor, ultimately promoting cybersecurity.

"Today, we have a really robust capability to do fires," said Col. Matt Paul, "but it was not built for how we have to share data in the future."

“Soldiers need to shoot, move and communicate,” the Army chief of staff said. “Technology should facilitate those fundamentals, not encumber them.”

Looking for the latest Government Contracting News? Read about Army Officials Cite Organizational Changes as Key to Achieving Network Simplification.

"I think the most important thing that I'm communicating to industry is that we need a flexible network in the future," Mark Kitz, leader of PEO C3T, told Breaking Defense. "And we need to be able to iterate our programs so we can have that flexible network in the future."

On Day 2, Army buyers roamed the floor looking for software to help build their tactical networks.

"I don't want one teammate. I want a team of industry that's going after this really robust set of applications that modernizes this sort of monolithic, single application," Mark Kitz told Breaking Defense.

PEO C3T issued a request for information regarding the continued modernization of AFATDS, which interfaces with more than 80 other systems.