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The Key Is Information, Not Technology
By Miriam Moss, DISA Corporate Communications

Air Force Lt Gen Charles E. Croom Jr., DISA director and commander of the Joint Task Force–Global Network Operations, during his keynote address, challenged the audience to rethink its current mindset about warfare and internal governmental processes.

“The world is changing so rapidly that if we’re not improving ourselves every single day, we’re actually falling behind. And as good as we [DISA] are, if we’re not doing it differently tomorrow, we’re falling behind,” said Croom.

Croom said that DISA has to relish and embrace change so as not to fall behind. He believes that in order to obtain, retain, and sustain adaptability in an ever-changing warfighting environment, the focus has to be redirected from technology-centered to information-centered.

“I learned that it really isn’t about our technology,” said Croom. “You’ve heard it from the warfighter today [conference plenary speaker Army LTG Francis H. Kearney III, deputy commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, who led special operations in the Middle East]. He talked about systems and platforms, but what’s most important to him is the information,” said Croom.

“The warfighter needs to know where his enemy is, where his supplies are, where his friendly forces are,” Croom said.

Answers to these critical questions can save lives. These answers are derived from information. Technology is merely a vehicle that is used to transmit and share the information needed, according to Croom. If the information were not needed, then the technology would not have evolved. Information is at the core; the need to know drives technological advances.
 
Croom believes that information is America’s greatest weapons system. “Do you believe it?” he asked the audience, daring them to re-examine their thoughts about the significance and actual application of information during wartime.

“I believe it. [It’s] more powerful than any platform that we have today. Information in the hands of the commander makes us a winning force and keeps our soldiers alive. Do our operators believe that? Some do. Most do not,” said Croom. “So here it places the burden on us. Because America’s greatest weapons system is in our hands, our hands collectively until the operator gets it.”

Another factor that cannot be ignored when speaking of information during times of war is timing, more specifically speed. The speed at which needed information is available to the warfighter can be the determining factor in success or failure and in the number of casualties.

Croom explained to the audience that there are a number of capabilities and technologies in existence, whether they reside in the private or public sector, but they have not been “approved” for use on the battlefield where they are most needed.

“Soldiers are in harm’s way because we lack speed in getting [needed] capability to the battlefield,” said Croom.

The timeline from concept development to the actual development, testing, approval process, and the release of new or enhanced capabilities is lengthy because of the obstacles we ourselves create, according to Croom.

 “It’s not laws that prevent us from getting speed there [to the warfighter], it’s … the processes we develop within our own government,” said Croom.

For this reason, for the past three years, DISA has been focusing on improving the speed in both the development and testing of capabilities that enable the warfighter to get vital information at the moment it’s needed, in real-time. Croom highlighted DISA’s “adopt, buy, create,” or ABC, acquisition approach, which has improved the speed in delivering capabilities to the warfighter, while saving the government money.

The approach encourages program mangers to initially look for existing capabilities that have scalability. From there, program managers may buy needed capabilities and services to meet their requirements, and as a last resort, the agency creates a new solution or capability to address the needs of the warfighter.

Croom told the audience that DISA had reviewed more than 130 different programs in a month’s time.

“In the end, it’s all about speed,” he said. “You heard it [from the warfighter]; they’ll take that 80 percent solution out there on the battlefield if we get it to them fast.”

It is better to be able to deliver some capability to the warfighter and decrease the number of unknown variables in a timely manner, than to deliver nothing at all to the warfighter who is in need of information.

If we wait to have the 100-percent-capability solution every single time before we deliver the solution to the warfigther, it will be delivered late — long after the need was identified — and the technology will be outdated.

The speed of delivering the needed information technology capabilities and solutions to the warfighter is a team effort, said Croom.

“It’s all about teamwork — whether it be with NII [the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration], whether it be with joint staff, the services, industry — we can’t do this alone. So, I ask you to continue the strong teamwork,” said Croom.

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