Less than 2 percent of the $9 billion allocated for the U.S. military's computer technology overhaul has been used in the last year.
The majority of American businesses now choose cloud computing, but the Pentagon has struggled for years to make the switch. Concerns that the cloud isn't secure enough for critical military use are the reason it's still having trouble.
The Defense Department's previous attempt, which was famously called JEDI cloud, was doomed from the start when Amazon and Oracle successfully contested Microsoft's award of the contract in court. The Pentagon restarted in December 2022, distributing a fresh $9 billion contract among four vendors: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, in an attempt to get things rolling.
However, less than 2 percent of the $9 billion allocated for the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) initiative has been committed after a year of operation. The Pentagon's tech strategists claim that this program is critical to advancing the United States into next-generation fighting capabilities, but the initiative's delayed start is a reflection of persistent concerns about the security of commercial cloud technologies.
In an interview, Lily Zeleke, the deputy chief information officer for the information enterprise at the Defense Department, stated that cloud software is "the backbone of the development, the application, and advancement of AI and machine learning." "They are essential to our efforts to modernize."
The delays, according to some defense analysts, may hurt the US military's ability to compete.
Speaking to JWCC's predecessor, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, former Defense Department technology officer Paul Scharre remarked, "The time that we lost with JEDI was really painful because you need a computing structure to train AI models." "To advance with AI, DOD must have that cloud infrastructure in place."
Google Public Sector CEO Karen Dahut, a former Navy officer, said the Defense Department "thinks too long and hard" about the possible risks of new technology during an October conference of the Association of the U.S. Army.
"We must begin discussing AI models and creating targeted use cases. "Let us proceed with creating the use cases," Dahut stated. We are currently discussing risk a lot, along with the steps that must be taken to get there. And because our opponents are moving swiftly, we simply must move.
With $22.8 million in awards, Microsoft leads the field in JWCC contracts that are publicly published, according official procurement statistics from USAspending.gov. Oracle ($9.3 million), Amazon ($7.8 million), and Google ($3.9 million) are the next in line.
Microsoft and Amazon have been ordered to demonstrate their solutions for the Joint All-Domain Command and Control project (JADC2), a next-generation system that will use automation and artificial intelligence to guide armaments, for a total of $33,000 each. According to Vice Adm. Ron Boxall, director of force structure, resources, and assessment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, JADC2 is intended to link "any sensor to any shooter in any domain at any time."
The U.S. military IT body in charge of the JWCC implementation, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), claimed that not all orders placed up to this point are included in those records. According to DISA, 39 contracts have been placed, amounting to up to $269.9 million in orders if all options are exercised. The Washington Post counted 30 contracts on USAspending.gov. According to DISA, about 40 more are being processed.
In an interview, Sharon Woods, the director of hosting and compute at DISA, stated that these technologies will enable soldiers to use AI algorithms to crunch data on battlefields, facilitating quicker decision-making and, hopefully, providing the US an advantage over opponents.
According to Woods, "data is often collected in theater, on the battlefield." "The ability to gather and process that data at the point of collection, where the warfighter operates, is what JWCC offers."
When asked if the software might power self-governing weaponry, Zeleke replied that cloud systems could handle any kind of computational task. "Cloud computing can support any capability," the speaker stated.
Zeleke and Woods refuted the claim that the JWCC launch was sluggish. According to Zeleke, the team has reduced the average contract processing time from months to only a few weeks. It's more complicated since, according to her, this is the department's first multivendor cloud contract that spans classification levels. She remarked, "The team has worked really, really hard."
After a high-profile attack of Microsoft's cloud during the summer by Chinese cyberspies who were able to access the email accounts of U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, concerns have been raised about the security of cloud systems. This month, The Post revealed that Chinese military hackers have been stepping up their efforts to take down vital U.S. infrastructure, such water and power utilities.
The pendulum gave way abruptly. A few years ago, everything was supposed to move to the cloud. That's kind of coming back," DISA Chief Technology Officer Steve Wallace stated last month at a defense contractor gathering.
Under JWCC, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are currently engaged in an extensive and protracted bidding process for separate contracts with various branches of the U.S. military. According to Woods, all four suppliers have a sizable collection of program catalogs that are updated on a monthly basis and "continue to grow in terms of the capabilities being offered."
