Transcripts For CSPAN3 Deputy 20240702

Autonomous systems within the next two years. Ms. Hicks spoke about the program and other emerging technologies in defense at a National Defense Industrial Association conference in washington, dc. [applause] thank you. The job of deputy secretary of defense is likely known to be one of the toughest government. It is the chief operating officer for the largest employer in the world. Beginning her Government Service as a president ial management intern and spending time in and out of government, she was quite familiar the demands of the job before she was sworn in. She was wellprepared to take them on. Prior to her current position, she was the Senior Vice President Henry Kissinger chair and director of International Security at csis. At least her current title is a little shorter than that. She was sworn in as the 35th deputy secretary of defense in 2021. I think it is interesting that the title of her dissertation at m. I. T. Was change agents. Who leads and why in the execution of National Security policy . Given the swirl of strategic and technological change all around us, i would say a change agent is exactly what our times call for. We are fortunate to have dr. Hicks lead off our conference and after her remarks, she has graciously agreed to submit to a rigorous crossexamination by yours truly. Please join me in welcoming the deputy secretary of defense, dr. Kathleen hicks. Dr. Hicks good morning and thank you for the kind introduction. Thank you for the invitation. To both of you, thank you for your many years of service and leadership and support for the Defense Department. Before i go on, i want to acknowledge the tragic accident in darwin, australia and express my condolences to the families who lost loved ones. I also want to convey my prayers for those marines who were injured, for their families and caregivers. Let me extend my sympathy to the people of hawaii for their deaths of so many in maui for the u. S. Defense community, these shocks are a reminder that just as hundreds of personnel have been actively engaging the ongoing response in hawaii, right now as we take respite from heat and humidity, u. S. Sailors and marines are through the western pacific along with allies collectively upholding our commitment to the security and stability that enables a free, open, peaceful indo pacific. Today as we enjoy this airconditioned ballroom on bases around the world, u. S. Airmen and guardians are on watch ensuring those domains also stay free of conflict enabling commerce and information to freely flow around the world. Today as speeches and panels give way to networking breaks and sections, american soldiers in Washington State are training to maneuver and fire longrange hypersonic weapon. As part of a global force, their fellow Service Members are deployed around the world from the Eastern Frontier to the straight of hormuz and beyond. There is a reason we call them war fighter because most of this century, any of them have been fighting wars. While i am glad to say that they and we are not at war today, we cannot forget that all of them are still counting on all of us to deliver safe and reliable combat credible capabilities at speed and scale. So they can deter aggression and when it called to fight. Those words war fighter are at the core of how the secretary and i have thought to drive innovation throughout the Defense Department especially in this enduring era of conversation with the prc. While we have always had an imperative to intimate, there is no mistaking why that has taken on more urgency in recent years. The main strategic competitor we face today is different from the rival with face in the cold war. A rival who was relatively slow and lumbering, compared to the prc of the present. And while america shed blood and treasure over 20 years of war in iraq and afghanistan, the prc worked with focus and determination to build a modern military, carefully crafting it to blunt the operational advantages weve enjoyed for decades. But the one advantage they can never blunt, steal, or copy, no matter how hard they try because its embedded in our people is American Ingenuity our ability to innovate, change the game, and in the military sphere, to imagine, create, and master the future character of warfare. And not only militarily. Its part of what makes our systems different. America and our likeminded friends and allies have such vibrant commercial Innovation Ecosystems because we also have free and open societies of imaginative inventors, doers, and problemsolvers. We dont seek to crush or control innovation, or make it toe the party line. Instead, our goal is to seed, spark, and stoke the flames of innovation. Thats a big reason why the secretary and i bet on our freemarket system over the prcs statist economy any day of the week. And we still believe in our capacity to innovate, and indeed outinnovate our competitors, because weve seen us do it time and again. Dods past innovation pursuits often had labels specific to their times and origins the revolution in military affairs. Transformation. Offset strategies. The Defense Innovation initiative. These are just some of the monikers applied to u. S. Defense efforts over the decades. But no matter the name, they all shared a simple and compelling proposition to create and exploit change as a military opportunity. And whether the innovation comes from new technology, or new concepts for mature technologies, or new ways to build or buy or use our capabilities, or new sources of such innovations whether originating within dod, or outside, as they increasingly do today, in the face of our pacing challenge, our task is to adapt and integrate innovations wherever they can add the most military value. Easier said than done, of course. Ive heard all the criticisms and levied many of them myself, from the inside and outside were too risk averse. Cant hire the workforce we need. Cant allocate or expend resources fast enough. Budgeting and bureaucratic processes are slow, cumbersome, and byzantine. Not enough incentive to change culture. Not enough effort to leverage nontraditional suppliers. Startups and commercial companies cant figure out how to work with us. Or that Congress Wont let us move faster. That our system was built for the industrial age, not the information age, let alone the age of ai. That we dont invest enough in r d or we invest too much in r d not a joke. Or the triedandtrue, dod isnt doing enough on innovation. and the mirror, that weve done so much to quote an august 7th headline from National Defense magazine the pentagons Innovation Ecosystem is getting out of hand. now ill let you in on a little secret i agree with almost all of this. As one of the Worlds Largest organizations, its often hard to see ourselves clearly, and get out of our own way. So im far from satisfied that everything is working as it should. Honestly, if i could solve all those problems with the snap of my fingers or the sweep of a pen or sheer force of will, i would. And so would secretary austin. Except were not god. And were old enough to know there is no santa claus. Because thats not how the world works and its not how innovation works, either. There are no silverbullets when it comes to innovation. Of course, silver bullets make for great headlines. But pretending theyre real helps no one certainly not our warfighters. Heres another secret when it comes to delivering capabilities to warfighters at speed and scale just having an office in Silicon Valley wont do it. Thats necessary, but not sufficient. Just being able to do other transaction authorities agreements wont do it. Thats necessary, but not sufficient. And even then, just doing otas isnt enough, either. Because once you enter a deal, that capability still must be put into warfighters hands, integrated into operational concepts and plans, produced at scale, and deployed to the field. The reality is, we face an accumulation of challenges. Most dont lend themselves to singular broadbrush fixes. The most obvious ones were addressed years ago. The ones left, that we can actually solve ourselves, tend to be, lets just say, wonky. Not headlinegrabbing. But if they arent tackled, our gears will still grind too slowly, and our innovation engines still wont run at the speed and scale we need. And that, we cannot abide. Lets be clear we all know the challenges and we all know the stakes. This is not about understanding the problems, or lack of leadership focus, or insufficient resources. This is about systematically tackling the highest barriers to enabling and unleashing the potential of u. S. And partner innovations some in dod or our labs or elsewhere in government, but most of all outside of it. That means we first must see the whole of the Defense Innovation ecosystem to lower the myriad barriers that get in our way. And then, we must do the hard government work of removing those most damaging innovation obstacles which is exactly what weve been doing. Over the last twoandahalf years, weve been systematically mapping and debugging the dod Innovation Ecosystem. First, we mapped the entire ecosystem from whenever a company or an operational need first enters it, through r d and transition, all the way to acquisition and sustainment. We then dug deep, working with many of you to identify nearly 50 of the most critical pain points that companies, universities, and innovators of all kinds are experiencing each one representing a variety of individual obstructions to innovation. And for almost a year, weve been doing the hard, methodical work of solving those pain points. Because good intentions do not drive outcomes. Putting your nose to the grindstone and demanding accountability does. For instance, we found a need to betteralign our s t and acquisitions processes. Thats why we started connecting our technology, acquisitions, financial, and requirements data systems together, to better track where technologies transition into the hands of the warfighter and which ones. We also started a long process to align our modular open systems architecture standards to simplify how we upgrade dod Weapons Systems and reduce costs. Candidly, we cant eliminate every pain point like securityrelated roadblocks, which we can only alleviate, because a capability compromised by the enemy doesnt hold much value for the warfighter. It only puts them at greater risk. But we can do a lot, from security to workforce to transition, to make this entire ecosystem run faster and smoother for everyone even if youre not a major defense contractor, or a billionairebacked startup. For example, we now provide Free Cybersecurity Services to any company with a dod contract or access to nonpublic dod information. Of the dozens of tasks weve set out to tackle, weve completed about 30 , and another 50 are well on their way. Others will never really end, like sharing insights from quarterly industry roundtables across dod. A few require specific help from congress. And even though were through the punch list, even then, im sure there will be more pain points to uncover and address. Which we must and will. Just as in any enterprise, our innovation focus has a customer. And here, our Main Customer is the warfighter. We are laserfocused from the top on customer needs, and clear paths to fulfilling them. That requires resources and an ecosystem of innovation that supports scaling fast, and weve worked hard on both. This is a complex system of systems. A shotgunblast approach will not work. Neither will chipping away one small piece at a time. So our approach is nonlinear. Its iterative. Its comprehensive and purposeful. Its devsecops. You can see that in how weve evolved the Defense Innovation unit to the times and to the strategic imperative and doug beck will talk about our diu 3. 0 approach here later tomorrow. Similarly, weve also been rapidly iterating on the foundations to deliver now a datadriven and aiempowered military we issued data decrees to mandate all dod data be visible, accessible, understandable, linked, trustworthy, interoperable, and secure. Our Ada Initiative deployed data scientists to every combatant command, where theyre integrating data across applications, systems, and users. Weve developed and awarded four joint warfighting cloud capability contracts to leadingedge commercial cloud providers, to ensure we have computing, storage, network infrastructure, and advanced Data Analytics to scale on demand. We stood up dods chief digital and Artificial Intelligence office, which is accelerating our adoption of data, analytics, and ai from the boardroom to the battlefield. The secretary and i are ensuring cdao is empowered to lead change with urgency, from the ering to the tactical edge. And weve invested steadily and smartly in accompanying technology. All this and more is helping realize combined joint alldomain command and control. This is not a platform or single system that were buying. Its a whole set of concepts, technologies, policies, and talent thats advancing a core u. S. Warfighting function. Command and control. With cjadc2, were integrating sensors and fusing data across every domain, while leveraging cuttingedge Decision Support tools to enable hightempo operations. And its making us even better than we already are at joint operations and combat integration. Cjadc2 is not some futuristic dream. Based on multiple Global Information dominance experiments, trips to see indopacoms joint fires network, and exercises like centcoms digital falcon oasis and the 18th airbornes scarlet dragon series its clear these investments are yielding returns much faster than traditional capabilities. Again, devsecops. Thats the beauty of what software can do for hard power. Delivery doesnt take several years or a decade. Our investments in data, ai, and compute are empowering warfighters in the here and now in matters of months, weeks, and even days. And theyll be delivering even more between now and january. Cjadc2 is vital, but its only one of the key elements of u. S. Warfighting advantage under the joint warfighting concept. So weve been extending more bridges and express lanes over the valley of death, to increase urgency and speed the transition from between r d and production at scale it in important areas so we get the right capabilities to the right people, in time to matter for the warfighter. For instance we started rder, the Rapid Defense experimentation reserve, a process to incentivize joint experimentation and hasten the pathway from concepts to experiments to fielding at scale. One example is systems that fuse sensor data across the battlespace enabling marines doing island maneuvers to leverage longrange fires from the army or air force. Were leveraging new pathways for middletier acquisition and Software Acquisition. By the end of this september, over 5. 5 billion will have gone through the Software Acquisition pathway across the last three fiscal years. And weve stood up other initiatives like apfit, to accelerate procurement and fielding of advanced and innovative technologies, and competitive advantage pathfinders, or caps, to overcome bureaucratic and cultural barriers to delivering capabilities at scale to the warfighter. Together these efforts are shaving 3to6 years off transition and delivery timelines for warfighter priorities like expeditionary wideband satcoms, antijam radio links, multiple counterc5isrt capabilities, and more arriving downrange well before the end of this decisive decade. These efforts are already making a difference. And yet we know we must do more. Across the board, the secretary and i are personally and relentlessly focused on outcomes, not inputs. This strategic competition demands our urgency. We have no patience for lip service, footdragging, or innovation theater. Bumper stickers and brand names dont mean much if you dont deliver outcomes. As youll hopefully hear from other dod speakers here, were doing much more to drive innovation such as elevating diu to report directly to secretary austin and empowering it to help us deliver strategic impact at scale; using multiyear procurement to maximize production of longrange munitions for the indopacific; and standing up the office of Strategic Capital to selectively find and fill gaps in private investment that could hamper our access to critical technologies. The echoes from innovations past have shaped our innovations in the present from how we stood up cdao in less than a year, to novel operational concepts were developing for longrange fires, to how we borrowed parts of the counteried playbook to support ukraine after russias latest invasion last february. In the 18 months since then, weve sent ukraine over 3. 1 million rockets, missiles, mortars and artillery rounds and thats only four of the categories of munitions. Weve sent and committed much more over 43 billion of military assistance. And, working with the private sector, weve also helped ukraine access important commercial Technology Capabilities that have made a real difference to them on the battlefield. Whether in the past or present, innovation has advanced our military advantage when the right ingredients came together first, an operational problem; that is, customer need. Then, a potential solution, with technology thats ready, or ready enough, to scale fast, in time to matter for the warfighter. You need an atmosphere where people can test new things, big things, things that might fail, but that could also succeed in a gamechanging way. And you need people at multiple levels topdown and bottomup to see its potential, to bet big on its success, and to drive it over the finish line. If you only have some of those elements if the technology cant get there, if the need isnt clear, if theres no risktolerance, if people arent willing to propel it forward you get things that fizzle, arent adopted, or never scale. But at those alchemic moments, when all the parts collide, thats when gamechanging innovation really happens. And right now, is one of those moments. Today, were making another big bet; the latest piece of our comprehensive, warfightingcentric approach to innovation. Its called the replicator initiative. And i want to tell you a bit about it. Replicator is meant to help us overcome the prcs biggest advantage, which is mass. More ships. More missiles. More people. Before russia invaded ukraine again in february, they seemed to have that advantage too. But historically, even when we mobilized our economy and manufacturing base, rarely have americas warwinning strategies relied solely on matching an adversary shipforship and shotforshot. After all, we dont use our people as cannon fodder like some competitors do. Instead, we outmatch adversaries by outthinking, outstrategizing, and outmaneuvering them. We augment manufacturing and mobilization with our real comparative advantage, which is the innovation and spirit of our people. And so, if the operational challenge we must tackle is one of countering mass, we will do so not only through existing approaches and systems. Those remain important, but we already know how to build and use todays technology. This is about mastering the technology of tomorrow. To stay ahead, were going to create a new state of the art just as america has before leveraging attritable, Autonomous Systems in all domains which are less expensive, put fewer people in the line of fire, and can be changed, updated, or improved with substantially shorter lead times. Well counter the plas mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, harder to beat. With smart people, smart concepts, and smart technology, our military will be more nimble, with uplift and urgency from the commercial sector. Weve all seen in ukraine how emerging tech developed by commercial and nontraditional companies from starlink to switchblades to commercial imagery can be decisive in defending against modern military aggression. Its a vital component excuse me complement to traditional capabilities, which remain essential. At dod, weve already been investing in attritable Autonomous Systems across the military services, diu, the strategic capabilities office, and the combatant commands themselves and in multiple domains selfpiloting ships, uncrewed aircraft, and more. Its clear they arent just lowercost. They can be produced closer to the tactical edge. They can be used consistent with our principles of mission command, where we empower the lowestpossible echelons to innovate and succeed in battle. And they can serve as resilient, distributed systems, even if bandwidth is limited, intermittent, degraded or denied. So now is the time to take alldomain, attritable autonomy to the next level to produce and deliver capabilities to warfighters at the volume and velocity required to deter aggression, or win if were forced to fight. Since we need to break through barriers and catalyze change with urgency, weve set a big goal for replicator to field attritable Autonomous Systems at scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains, within the next 18to24 months. And the replication wont just be happening from a production standpoint. Well also aim to replicate and inculcate how we will achieve this goal, so we can scale whats relevant in the future again and again and again. Easier said than done . You bet. But were gonna to do it. To galvanize the full weight and leadership attention of the department of defense, so that everyone does their part, and to make sure we get the right commercial uplift and integration that replicator will need, the secretary has asked me to personally oversee it, together with the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. And well be supported by the director of diu, who will help us bring the full power of dods Innovation Ecosystem to bear. These capabilities will be developed and fielded in line with our responsible and ethical approach to ai and Autonomous Systems, where dod has been a world leader for over a decade and weve kept pace with change as technology has evolved. Consistent with our National Defense strategy and joint warfighting concept, we will employ attritable autonomous capabilities in ways that play to our enduring advantages the greatest being our people. Thats another comparative advantage we have over the prc. These systems will empower our warfighters, not overpower or undercut their abilities. In this respect, alldomain, attritable Autonomous Systems will help overcome the challenge of antiaccess, areadenial systems. Our ada2 to thwart their a2ad. To be clear, america still benefits from platforms that are large, exquisite, expensive, and few. But replicator will galvanize progress in the tooslow shift of u. S. Military innovation to leverage platforms that are small, smart, cheap, and many. Now, if youre a cynic or just a realist if youre thinking, cmon deputy this is the pentagon youre talking about youre too slow i do not blame you. Because im deeply, personally familiar with almost every maddening flaw in our system. But i also know that when the time is right, and when we apply enough leadership, energy, urgency, and depth of focus, we can get it done. Thats what america does. At dod we always succeed through teamwork. Replicator will be no different from working closely with the private sector, including commercial, nontraditional, and traditional Defense Companies alike; to collaboration and integration with allies and partners; to our Enduring Partnership with congress, which has the opportunity to be a key enabler in getting capabilities to the warfighter at speed and scale. I want to make something clear before i close. Youll never see the secretary or me rolling out a Mission Accomplished banner when it comes to innovation. Because we are in a persistent, generational competition for advantage, in which we cannot take military superiority for granted. We must ensure the prc leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression, and concludes, today is not the day and not just today, but every day, between now and 2027, now and 2035, now and 2049, and beyond. Innovation is vital to how we do that. We are not taking our foot off the gas, and in fact were accelerating. Our goal is always to deter, because competition does not mean conflict. Still, we must have combat credibility to win if we must fight. With that comes a solemn obligation to ensure our warfighters are ready, trained, and equipped for whatever may come. Including if the worst comes. Youre all part of how america fulfills that solemn obligation. In government, academia, industry in dod, on capitol hill, at research labs, startups, commercial companies, and major defense contractors our warfighters are counting on you on us to deliver at speed and scale. To work together, with greater urgency and unity of purpose. To not let them down. I dont intend to, and i know you wont either. And for that, i thank you. [applause] thank you for that, im excited about replicator and i want to start with that in a few minutes. You listed some buzzwords that have been used in the past, ive noticed that when something becomes fashionable and the label get slapped on everything. Innovation has a purpose. Creating advantage, certainly in the commercial sector, you sometimes have people say innovation for innovations sake. I take the general point. We put small dollars into capability but there is not real thought across the finish line. Our people serious about it . The National Defense strategy talks about incorporating, emerging technologies to solve key challenges . I mentioned you are the coo for the largest employer in the world. Where does incorporating technologies fit in your priorities . Its a major priority. My priority is not putting on the capabilities to solve the generational challenge put forth by the prc. It remains true to this day. The way we effectuate that, but just to shore, i mentioned initiatives. In addition we have created the steering group. We found a need in the system to pull that up systematically to the deputy secretary. We also created the body that will help us try replicator by virtue of the outcomes we received and deliverables. You know this a Defense Innovation report that the only thing can grab hold of it. Seems to me you grab hold of replicator and i heard of 18 to 24 months for a particular area what is the biggest problem . Scaling the production is the area, we have gone after that with replicator in the hands of war fighters, we know who can do it. It doesnt mean its without risk. I would assume some amount of private capital will be necessary scale up the production part of the plan has to be an attraction for companies to put resources and people onto this project. We will spell out the details in the coming weeks. Particularly with the prc. Technologies in the right place. We see head scratching examples of things that get hung up the dummy to get,. Were going to drive through that. This culture changed and we will at that replicate because it is not realistic or only two people can effectively oversee the 3 Million People and all it is a very challenging system no doubt. You talked about replicator, you talked about how the department does not have things like that. How do you feel about essential . We are in a great place in terms of commercial industry having so much to offer. We were lashed up. They all had to happen and i think they will help us accelerate. In three fiscal years for Software Acquisitions, i think we can keep skynet up. There are a lot of folks on capitol hill who are excited at prospects to create some change in the system. They are in both chambers among appropriators and authorizes. We need steady unpredictable appropriations. There is talks of a shutdown that is not good, not just the replicator but everything in the Defense Department because we have become used to this as deeply unhealthy when we are in that kind of hold pattern we have the leadership in place to drive change, we just talked about that. Everyone knows that. On the battlefield or in the Defense Department. Those are the kinds of things we look forward to working on. One more question. Nonfictional defense applies. This is a generational challenge. We understand the advantage in innovation from being able to thrive and take advantage, we are learning everyday had to get better. We have seen a tremendous we are for business. This is a great start, im excited. Thank you so much. [applause]