Let’s face it, modern-day militaries are technology intensive. Some have called it a transition from bombs and bullets to bits and bytes. That is flawed thinking. Basically, It is not a transition: The modern military is a combination of bombs, and bullets, and bits and bytes. The modern military leverages the best of all both asset classes in the performance of their duties. That requires an orderly transition and that means funding for moving into bits and bytes capabilities in the bits and bytes.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces numerous serious challenges and you can bet those challenges change in priority frequently. One challenge that will surely remain near the top of the list stems from their department’s ability to attract, train and retain skilled technology resources. Recent reports that DoD has lost ground in its their efforts are reasons for great concern. Let’s face it, they are DoD is in competition for tech-skilled resources with the private sector. and that The private sector knows how to compete for these highly skilled resources. After all, they have been fierce competitors with each other for years. That doesn’t bode well for DoD as which is trying tries to step up its technological capabilities and that requires them to increase their cyber workforce.
A recent report suggests that China is gaining ground on the tech front. They are closing the tech gap with the United States. China is not the only country making technological advances that should raise concerns. Our nation’s defense requires a world-class, tech-savvy resource pool for both our military and in the private sector. Instead of competing for the limited number of tech resources that are currently available, we should concentrate on increasing the resource pool. How about a two-pronged collaborative (DoD and private sector) approach? First, create incentives for students to pursue technology studies. Second, we should collaboratively establish a retraining initiative for all those that did not grow up in the tech era. This is a strategic problem that must be solved now. It demands immediate action and a strategic approach.
