"We're not going to change bureaucracy as a whole," CDAO Craig Martell said. "We need to find the right gaps, the right places where we can leverage value and then that value is going to drive a virtuous cycle of change."
“What I worry about… for this individual is whether they are going to get enough support from the government and from the center of DoD to actually make changes that are needed," said Google's Andrew Moore.
The Pentagon wants at least $70 million for its Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve and $76.79 million for its Artificial Intelligence and Data Accelerator, budget documents show.
The $130.1 billion research, development, test and evaluation budget represents a 9.5% increase over last year’s levels.
The funding aligns with the Defense Department’s AI efforts, notably the AI and Data Acceleration initiative announced last year by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
“I think that’s a common understanding from those that have been in the Pentagon – We don’t in all cases have the data we need or if we do, it’s not the quality that we need or timeliness or some other facets,” Randal Cole, deputy chief data officer, said. “And so I think that is an ongoing challenge.”
"So if you don’t have an integration layer like that, then you have to go find all of the data sources yourself... This is something we don’t have yet in the department,” Lt. Gen. Michael Groen told Breaking Defense.
The new office is slated for October, Pentagon CIO John Sherman said, while also giving updates on the Spectrum Strategy implementation plan and the cyber workforce strategy.
The expanded experimentation campaign is also building new "business approaches" -- some of which will require Pentagon-level blessing -- to speed software-based capabilities to the field, DAF Chief Architect Preston Dunlap said.
Two types of expert teams will help the 11 Combatant Commands make better use of data for decision-making, the deputy Defense Secretary said.