{"id":37757,"date":"2021-03-11T22:48:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T22:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/11\/flat-budget-must-prioritize-it-air-force-official-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:37:10","slug":"flat-budget-must-prioritize-it-air-force-official-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/budget\/2021\/03\/11\/flat-budget-must-prioritize-it-air-force-official-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Flat budget must prioritize IT, Air Force official says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force\u2019s top IT official warned this week that the service needs to continue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/it-networks\/2021\/02\/19\/host-of-challenges-await-next-pentagon-cio\/\" target=_blank>to increase investment in information technology<\/a> as the Pentagon prepares for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2020\/05\/05\/esper-flat-budget-could-speed-cutting-legacy-programs\/\" target=_blank>flat or declining budgets<\/a>, or risk falling behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile we\u2019re entering that world of flat or declining budget, most likely, we are also entering a world where the entire rest of the commercial world, their IT spending is going [up],\u201d Lauren Knausenberger, the Air Force chief information officer, said March 9 at the AFCEA Rocky Mountain Cyberspace Symposium. \u201cThey\u2019re making trades where better operations means fewer people having to fight through manual process[es], and where they\u2019re spending more and more on their digital infrastructure because they know that it\u2019s the foundation for their future competitive advantage. They will not be in business if they don\u2019t make this investment. And we know more and more that we will not be in business if we don\u2019t make this investment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Knausenberger\u2019s comments come as debate swirls on Capitol Hill over the future of the defense budget. The latest expectation is a flat defense budget that will total $704 billion to $708 billion, an amount that analysts expect will cut into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2021\/03\/10\/research-procurement-could-get-squeezed-in-biden-budget\/\" target=_blank>procurement and research<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Biden administration\u2019s recently released interim national security guidance that said the U.S. military needs to \u201cshift our emphasis from unneeded legacy platforms and weapons systems to free up resources for investments in the cutting-edge technologies and capabilities.\u201d All the services have efforts underway to create <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/it-networks\/2021\/03\/05\/exclusive-navy-transfers-network-authorities-to-project-overmatch-office\/\" target=_blank>complex future networks<\/a> to enable joint war fighting and to modernize other parts of their information technology enterprise. Recent government cybersecurity compromises affecting the IT supply chain have underscored the need to invest in modernizing legacy systems and boost network safeguards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force has made a public push in the last few years to upgrade its digital infrastructure, using new cloud and software development platforms. Knausenberger leads the Air Force\u2019s effort to burn down legacy systems and reduce manual processes, a project dubbed \u201cOperation Flamethrower.\u201d The goal of that project, Knausenberger said, is to \u201cruthlessly attack manual process, we get after redundant IT and we just get rid of all of that redundant policy that\u2019s not ready for 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She encouraged airmen to take initiative in automating manual IT processes that can easily be replaced, adding that if the automation replaces their job, \u201cwe\u2019ll find you another job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have so much need,\u201d Knausenberger said. \u201cWe need our airmen to be writing code. We need our airmen to be learning about cloud engineering. We need that next generation of AI algorithm developers, we need folks that understand comms, and an environment that includes Starlink, 5g and LTE and whatever else comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Knausenberger\u2019s comments were echoed at the event by Col. Andrew D\u2019Ippolito, the A-6 director at Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, who recently took part in an on-ramp event for the Air Force\u2019s Advanced Battle Management System, the service\u2019s effort for Joint All-Domain Command and Control. JADC2 is a Joint Staff-led effort to connect the best sensor with the best shooter. D\u2019Ippolito outlined several lessons from the ABMS event that common across the service: the Air Force and DoD aren\u2019t keeping pace with commercial technology, the acquisition process is holding the DoD back, and the culture needs to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">D\u2019Ippolito said the biggest obstacle to JADC2 is the service\u2019s AF Network and AFNET-Secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur AFNET and our AFNET-S are not capable of managing the demands of what JADC2 actually requires at this time,\u201d D\u2019Ippolito said, because those networks can\u2019t handle the vast amounts of data that must be transported under the new joint war-fighting concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need big pipes, and we need large throughput,\u201d he said of the data demands. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the Air Force to move forward successfully, the service components must get behind the efforts pushed down by Knausenberger, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe first step is to get on board with Ms. Knausenberger and with ACC\u2019s [Air Combat Command] thoughts and plans to establish a rock sold digital infrastructure,\u201d D\u2019Ippolito said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Air Force&#8217;s chief information officer warned that the service &#8220;will not be in business&#8221; if it doesn&#8217;t make IT investments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":44,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[44,8,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3340],"class_list":["post-37757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DMMNUJUVKBBYFLYUEBYG5HHJIM","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/it-networks\/2021\/03\/11\/flat-budget-must-prioritize-it-air-force-official-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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