The US Department of Defense’s (DoD) latest Cloud solution is expected to provide troops with the information they need to ‘dominate in the battlefield’, according to DoD officials.
DoD chief management officer John H Gibson II claims that access to information, timeliness and security of the data will provide soldiers with advantages on the battlefield. The ability to use that data for machine learning and artificial capabilities will also help to improve capabilities.
Machine learning and data processing abilities at machine speeds are set to be critical factors in providing advantages to soldiers in the future.
“Daigle added that the best solution for the US DoD is to have a single Cloud solution as it would require fewer people to be involved in the process than multiple Cloud solutions.”
Office of the Secretary of Defense Cost Analysis and Programme Evaluation director Robert Daigle said: “Arguably, it is a critical component of how the warfighters of today should be fighting, if they had the capabilities.”
Daigle added that the best solution for the US DoD is to have a single Cloud solution as it would require fewer people to be involved in the process than multiple Cloud solutions, as well as help to reduce costs.
To this end, the US DoD has launched a two-year contract known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) Cloud, with five-year and three-year option periods.
Daigle added: “The whole reason we’re engaging in this is all about enabling tomorrow’s warfighter to operate at speed.
“Whoever can process the information more quickly tomorrow has an advantage on the battlefield.”
The final request for proposals for the DoD JEDI Cloud contract is expected to be released in May, with an award expected in fiscal 2018.
army-technology.com