Transcripts For CSPAN3 Deputy 20240702 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN3 Deputy July 2, 2024

Other emerging defense technologies at a conference hosted by the National Defense industrial association. In washington, d. C. Thank you, michael. The job of deputy secretary of defense is widely known to be one of the toughest in government. It is, after all, the chief operating officer for the largest employer in the world. Beginning her Government Service as a president ial management intern, and spending time both in and out of government, dr. Kathleen hicks was quite familiar with the demands of the job before she was sworn in. She was well prepared to take them on. Just prior to her current position, she was the Senior Vice President Henry Kissinger chair and director of security at csi us. She was sworn in on february 9th, 2021. I think its interesting that the title of her dissertation at mit was, change agents. Who leads ny, and the execution of National Security policy. Given the swirl of strategic and technological change all around us, i would say a change agent is exactly what our times call for. We are indeed fortunate to have dr. Hicks leadoff our conference. After her remarks, she graciously agreed to submit to a rigorous crossexamination by yours truly. Join me to welcome the deputy secretary of defense, dr. Kathleen hicks. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, for the introduction. Thank you to david for the invitation. To both of you, thank you for your many years of service in leadership and support for the defense department. Before i go on, i want to acknowledge the tragic accident in australia. To express my condolences who lost loved ones but i want to convey my prayers for those marines who were injured, for their families, and caregivers. Let me also extend my sympathies to the people of hawaii for the deaths of so many in maui. And for those who lost communities, livelihoods, everything they have known. For the u. S. Defense community, these shocks are a reminder that hundreds of personnel have been actively engaging the ongoing response to hawaii, right now, as we take respites from summer heat and humidity, u. S. Sailors and marines are steaming through the western pacific. Alongside close allies like australia and japan. Collectively upholding our commitment to the security and stability that enables a free, open, peaceful and prosperous indopacific. Today, as we enjoy the air conditioned ballroom, from guam, to korea, hawaii, alaska, u. S. Airmen and guardians are on watch in the skies and into space, ensuring the domains to stay free of conflict. Enabling information to freely flow around the world. Today the panels give way to networking and exceptions, another pacific shore, american soldiers are training to maneuver weapons. As part of a global force with global responsibilities, fellow servicemembers are deployed around the world. From nato eastern frontier, to Subsaharan Africa and beyond. There is a reason we call them war fighters. For most of this century, many of them have indeed been fighting wars. While im glad to say that they and we are not at work today, we cannot forget that all of them are so counting on all of us to deliver safe and reliable combat credible capabilities at speed and scale. So they can deter aggression and win if called to fight. They deliver speed and scale and are at the core, have thought to drive innovation around the defense department, especially in this era of strategic competition. While dod has always had an imperative to innovate, there is no mistaking why the imperative to take on more urgency in recent years. The main strategic competitor we face today is different from the rival we faced during the cold war. Arrival who is relatively slow and lumbering compared to the present. While america sheds treasure over 20 years in war of iraq and afghanistan, with focus and determination to build a modern military. Carefully crafting it to blunt the operational advantages we have enjoyed for decades. The one advantage they could never blunt, steel, or copy, no matter how hard they try, its embedded in our people, american ingenuity. Our ability to innovate, change the game, and in the military sphere, to imagine, create, and master, the future of warfare. Not just militarily. Its part of what makes our system different. America and likeminded friends and allies, have such vibrant commercial Innovation Ecosystems, because we also have free and open societies with imaginative inventors, doers, and problem solvers. We do not seek to crush or control innovation or to make it toe the party line. Instead, our goal is to feed, spark, and still, the flames of innovation. That is a big reason why the secretary and i are set on our free market system over the economy any day of the week. We believe in our capacity to innovate. Indeed, oust our competitors, because we have seen us do it time and again. Dod often have label specific two times and origins. Transformations, offset strategies, those are just some of the monikers applied to the defense effort over the decades. No matter the name, they all share a simple and compelling, to create and exploit to change as a military opportunity. Whether the innovation comes from new technology or concepts for technologies, or new ways to build or buy or use our capabilities, or new sources of such innovations, whether originating with in, or outside, they increasingly do, in the face of our challenges today, we adapt and integrate innovation wherever they can add the most military value. Easier said than done, of course. I have heard all of the criticism. I levied many of them myself from the inside and outside. We cant hire the workforce, we cant delegate fast enough. The processes are slow, not enough incentive to change culture, not enough effort to leverage nontraditional suppliers, startups and commercial companies cant figure out how to work with us, the conference wont let us move faster our system was built for the industrial age, not the information age, let alone the age of ai. That we do not invest enough in or too much, not a joke. Or the tried and true, dod is not doing enough on innovation. The engineers have done so much. The pentagons Innovation Ecosystem is getting out of hand. I will let you in on a secret. I agree with almost all of them. As one of the most largest organizations, it is hard to see ourselves clearly to get out of our own way. Im far from satisfied that everything is working as it should. Honestly, if i could solve all of those problems with the snap of my fingers or the sweep of a pen for the sheer force of will, i would. So with secretary. We are not god. We are old enough to know there is no santa claus. Thats not how the world works. It is not how Innovation Works either. There are no silver bullets when it comes to innovation. Silver bullets make for great headlines, but pretending they are real help, that certainly will not help. Another seeker, when it comes to delivering capabilities at speed and scale, having an office in Silicon Valley will not do it, it is necessary, but not sufficient. And even then, just doing otas isnt enough, either. Because once you enter a deal, that sufficient. Just being able to do other transaction authorities agreements wont do it. That necessary but not pr sufficient. And even then, just doing ot as isnt enough either. Once you enter a deal, that capability still must be putting in war fighterss hands, produced at scale and deployed to the field. The reality is that we face an accumulation of challenges. Most dont lend themselves to singular broad brush fixes. The most obvious ones were addressed years ago. The ones left that we can actually solve ourselves tend to be wonky. Not headline grabbing. T dâ–  if they are tackled, our gears will sold rights to slowly enter innovation engines still wont run at the speed and scale we need. Or and that we cannot abide. Lets be clear, we all know the challenges and we all know the stakes. This is not about understanding the problems or lack of leadership focus or insufficient resources. This is about systematically tackling the highest barriers to enabling and unleashing the potential of u. S. And partner innovationse. Some in dod or oe labs or elsewhere in government. But most of all, outside of it. That means we must first see the whole of the defense Innovation Ecosystem to lower the myriad barriers that get in our way. And then we must do the hard government word of removing the most damaging innovation opticals which is exactly what weve been doing. Over the lasta two and half years, weve been h systematically mapping and debugging the dod invitation ecosystem. First we mapped the entire e ecosystem from whatever a company or an operational need first enters it through r d all the way to acquisition and sustainment. We then dug deep working with many of you to identify nearly 50 of the most critical pain points that companies and innovators of all kinds are experiencing. Each one representing a varietyn of individual instructions. And for almost a year, we have been doing the hard methodical work of solving those pain points. Good intentions do not drive outcomes. Putting your nose to the right s good and demanding accountability does. For instance, we found the needb to better align our smt and acquisition processes. That why we started connecting d our acquisitions, financial and requirements that systems together to better track where i technology is transition into p the hands of the war fighter and which ones. We also started aligning our architecture standards to simplify how we upgraded dod weapon systems and reduce costsu candidly, we cant eliminate every pain point. Ro like securityrelated roadblocks which we can only alleviate because the capability compromised by the enemy doesnt hold much value. It only puts them at greater risk. But we , can do a lot from security to workforce to pl transition to make this entire ecosystem run faster and on smoother for everyone even if you are not a major defense contractor or a billionaire w back startup. For example, we know provide Free Cybersecurity Services to any company with a nddod contra or access to nonpublic dod information. Of the dozens of tasks we have set out to tackle, we have completed about 30 and another 50 are well on their way. Others will never really end like sharing insights from quarterly industry roundtables across dod. If you require specific help from congress. And even though we are through the punchlist, even then, im sure there will be more pain points to uncover and address which we must and will. For our Main Customer is the warfighter. We are laser focused on s customer needs and clear paths to filling them. That requires resources and innovation that supports scaling fast and we have worked0 fast on both. A shotgun blast will not help. Neither will chipping away one small piece at a time. Our approach is not linear. It is comprehensive and purposeful. It is that s. E. C. Ops. You can see that now we have innovated. In similarly, we have also been rapidly and ready on the o foundation to innovate now. Od we issue data degrees to mandate all dod data will be visible, accessible, understandable, linked, trustworthy, interoperable and secure. Our initiative deployed data scientists to every combatant command where they are integrating data across applications, systems and users. Weve developed and awarded four joint war fighting cloud compatibility contracts to ensure we have computing storage, Network Infrastructure to scale on demand. We stood up c. O. D. S cheap digital and Artificial Intelligence office from the ct boardroom to the battlefield. The secretary and i are ensuring is empowered to lead a change with urgency. And we have invested steadily and smartly in a company of technology. All this and more is mahelping realize. This is not a platform. It is a whole set of concepts, e technologies, policies and talents. Advancing a core u. S. War er fighting contract. We are integrating symptoms and fusing data across every domain while leveraging cuttingedge Decision Support tools to enable high tempo operations. And it is making us even better than we already are at joint operations and combat integration. Not some futuristic dream. In based on multiple dominance experiments, tricks to networks and exercises like digital falcon oasis in the 18th airborne scarlet dragon series. It is clear that this Rs Investment is yielding returns much faster than additional capabilities. Ng that the beauty of what the ge software can do for our power. Delivery doesnt take several years or decades. Our investments in data and ai are empowering warfighters in the here and now in matters of months, weeks and even days. They will be delivering even de more between now and january. It is only one of the key j elements under the joint concept. Sc years. And weve stood up other initiatives like apfit, to accelerate procurement and fielding of advanced and innovative technologies, and competitive advantage pathfinders, or caps, to overcome bureaucratic and cultural barriers to delivering capabilities at scale to the warfighter. Together these efforts are shaving 3to6 years off transition and delivery timelines for warfighter priorities like expeditionary wideband satcoms, antijam radio links, multiple counterc5isrt capabilities, and more arriving downrange well before the end of this decisive decade. These efforts are already making a difference. And yet we know we must do more. Across the board, the secretary and i are personally and relentlessly focused on outcomes, not inputs. This strategic competition demands our urgency. We have no patience for lip service, footdragging, or innovation theater. Bumper stickers and brand names dont mean much if you dont deliver outcomes. As youll hopefully hear from other dod speakers here, were doing much more to drive innovation such as elevating diu to report directly to secretary austin and empowering it to help us deliver strategic impact at scale; using multiyear procurement to maximize production of longrange munitions for the indopacific; and standing up the office of Strategic Capital to selectively find and fill gaps in private investment that could hamper our access to critical technologies. The echoes from innovations past have shaped our innovations in the present from how we stood up cdao in less than a year, to novel operational concepts were developing for longrange fires, to how we borrowed parts of the counteried playbook to support ukraine after russias latest invasion last february. In the 18 months since then, weve sent ukraine over 3. 1 million rockets, missiles, mortars and artillery rounds and thats only four of the categories of munitions. Weve sent and committed much more over 43 billion of military assistance. And, working with the private sector, weve also helped ukraine access important commercial Technology Capabilities that have made a real difference to them on the battlefield. Whether in the past or present, innovation has advanced our military advantage when the right ingredients came together first, an operational problem; that is, customer need. Then, a potential solution, with technology thats ready, or ready enough, to scale fast, in time to matter for the warfighter. You need an atmosphere where people can test new things, big things, things that might fail, but that could also succeed in a gamechanging way. And you need people at multiple levels topdown and bottomup to see its potential, to bet big on its success, and to drive it over the finish line. If you only have some of those elements if the technology cant get there, if the need isnt clear, if theres no risktolerance, if people arent willing to propel it forward you get things that fizzle, arent adopted, or never scale. But at those alchemic moments, when all the parts collide, thats when gamechanging innovation really happens. And right now, is one of those moments. Making another big bet; the latest piece of our comprehensive, warfightingcentric approach to innovation. Its called the replicator initiative. And i want to tell you a bit about it. Replicator is meant to help us overcome the prcs biggest advantage, which is mass. More ships. More missiles. More people. Before russia invaded ukraine again in february, they seemed to have that advantage too. But historically, even when we mobilized our economy and manufacturing base, rarely have americas warwinning strategies relied solely on matching an adversary shipforship and shotforshot. After all, we dont use our people as cannon fodder like some competitors do. Instead, we outmatch adversaries by outthinking, outstrategizing, and outmaneuvering them. We augment manufacturing and mobilization with our real comparative advantage, which is the innovation and spirit of our people. And so, if the operational challenge we must tackle is one of countering mass, we will do so not only through existing approaches and systems. Those remain important, but we already know how to build and use todays technology. This is about mastering the technology of tomorrow. To stay ahead, were going to create a new state of the art just as america has before leveraging attritable, Autonomous Systems in all domains which are less expensive, put fewer people in the line of fire, and can be changed, updated, or improved with substantially shorter lead times. Well counter the plas mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, harder to beat. With smart people, smart concepts, and smart technology, our military will be more nimble, with uplift and urgency from the commercial sector. Weve all seen in ukraine how emerging tech developed by commercial and nontraditional companies from starlink to switchblades to commercial imagery can be decisive in defending against modern military aggression. Its a vital component excuse me complement to traditional capabilities, which remain essential. At dod, weve already been investing in attritable Autonomous Systems across the military services, diu, the strategic capabilities office, and the combatant commands themselves and in multiple domains selfpiloting ships, uncrewed aircraft, and more. Its clear they arent just lowercost. They can be produced closer to the tactical edge. They can be used consistent with our principles of mission command, where we empower the lowestpossible echelons to innovate and succeed in battle. And they can serve as resilient, distributed systems, even if bandwidth is limited, intermittent, degraded or denied. So now is the time to take alldomain, attritable autonomy to the next level to produce and deliver capabilities to warfighters at th

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