UK defense will realize that software and digital transformation are as important as the more familiar hardware that has populated Top trumps cards of our youth. Ships, tanks and aircraft (and the people who operate and fight in and alongside them) will not be obsolete, but our advantage will come from a combination of people, hardware and software. This is especially true in the two “new” areas of warfare – cyber (space) and (space) – where people and hardware remain key, but software will define our ability to fulfill the defense objective.
Like all large organisations, UK Defense is working to increase the capabilities and manage the risks of the digital age. This requires more investment in time and effort in organizing our (internal and external) data; categorization and cataloguing; and make it accessible and ready for use by both humans and machines. Efforts will take years to really ramp up, but in 2022. we will begin to see significant changes. It is our intention that data is valued as the second most valuable defense asset after people.
Once we prepare our data, we will need to be able to access it, whether at the “edge” of the battlefield or in the corporate “core.” In 2022 The “digital backbone” of defense – the standardization of the networks and information exchange over which this data will flow – will begin to connect the connective tissue that connects our sensors (on ships, tanks, satellites and aircraft, and inside our cyber defenses) to our decision makers (whether admirals or corporals or supervisory control and data acquisition systems) and our “effectors” (weapons systems, surgical instruments or foot soldiers). This digital backbone will have cloud (and cloud-like) hosting and computing services and tools at both the core and the edge. We’re already getting there at the lower security levels, but in 2022. we’ll start to see a cloud deployed on Secret – the level at which defenses tend to operate and fight.
In 2022 our data will be increasingly ready and accessible, but we also need to buy, build and deploy software to use that data at the speed of relevance and at enterprise scale. To do this, we will see Defence’s ‘Digital Foundry’, of which the new Defense Artificial Intelligence Center is a key part, make an impact. The Foundry is a unified ecosystem of dozens of digital teams across defense, providing the foundational, cross-industry environments, standards and tools that enable those teams to work without feeling like they’re reinventing the wheel every time they develop a new product or service. The Foundry will also be a step change in the way we collaborate with the private sector and academia, making it easier not only for large defense and digital “first-timers,” but also for small and medium-sized businesses and students to play their part in our national security.
Just like any other organisation, defense must do all this while facing a wide range of threats – not least from other countries, criminal groups and terrorists. Our defense cyber transformation program is closely integrated with these other initiatives. It will also reach significant maturity in 2022. – ensuring that our people, our processes, our data and our technology are secure by design and protected from, as well as resilient to, the attacks that will inevitably come.
None of this will be achieved without the right people and skills and next year the transformation of our workforce will really begin. Our approach is one of a tight-knit ‘whole force’ – from uniformed regular and reserve personnel, civil servants, industry and academia – offering the diverse range of skills and attitudes we need for this huge but exciting challenge.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
