The Air Force started a cybersecurity exchange program the week of Jan. 3 that borrows professionals for six-to-12 month stints to work on complex issues, according to outgoing Air Force Secretary Deborah James.
James said Friday this program, called the Air Force Digital Services Team (AFDST), is to help the service build software excellence into new programs and troubleshoot existing ones that run into difficulties associated with software. This program, she said, is a component of the Defense Digital Service, which James said borrows industry professionals for a couple of years.
James said AFDST worked on the beleaguered Global Positioning System (GPS) III Next-Generation Operational Control System (OCX), which has suffered for years from what James called setbacks due to software and cybersecurity complexity. She said these professionals are providing advanced new software tools, techniques and practices
“We’re now going to be putting this approach to work to ensure that future programs are designed with an eye to the necessary cyber requirements,” James said at an Air Force Association (AFA) breakfast in Arlington, Va.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy, office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, told reporters Friday the service has put together a list of programs that would be candidates for AFDST and that he and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Darlene Costello would meet soon with others to set priorities for which programs would get the AFDST first.
Bunch declined to say which programs were candidates for AFDST, but said F-35 would not be one as that program is run out of the Navy and that he wouldn’t want to tell F-35 Program Executive Officer (PEO) Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan or Navy acquisition czar Sean Stackley how to run their program.
Friday’s presentation was one of James’ last public appearances in the Washington area. She has a going-away ceremony scheduled for Jan. 11 at Joint Base Andrews, Md.