Cyber warfare and security systems should be procured outside the traditional acquisition process to allow for quicker fielding to counter rapidly evolving threats, Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s acting top official for acquisition, said this week.
“What we’re going to try to put in place is a way to respect the fact that cyber has to move at a much fast pace than anything else we do,” Kendall said. “The technologies move extremely quickly. We have to react instantaneously to many of the threats.”
Kendall said the Defense Department is working on a report for Congress that will outline the strategy for acquiring cyber systems. The process cannot mirror the one used for longer programs because of the nature of the threat, he said.
“We got to take it outside the conventional system for the major long term weapons systems,” he said Monday during an event hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
Kendall has been nominated for the undersecretary of acquisition, technology and logistics and is awaiting a date for a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Kendall has been acting in the position since Ashton Carter left in October to become deputy secretary of defense.