The Defense Department last Friday said it has formed a new working group that will examine ongoing visibility challenges into its supply chains, assess supply chain resiliency, and create actions to limit threats and challenges to its supply chains.
“We are working to solve a problem that took 50 years to evolve,” Greg Kausner, acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said in a statement. “A comprehensive strategic approach will take time, dedicated attention and resources. Effective implementation begins with understanding our vulnerabilities and the necessary responses, so we can focus our efforts to build greater resiliency across critical supply chains.”
The two-year effort will be led by the Pentagon’s Office of Industrial Policy and will bring together various supply chain resiliency efforts already underway withing DoD.
Peter Kassabov, executive chairman and co-founder of the cybersecurity firm Fortress Information Security, released a statement on Friday saying the new initiative is “an important step” only if the working group also examines cyber vulnerabilities to the supply chain, not just country of origin, the availability of parts, and mineral stockpiles.
“By ignoring the cyber vulnerabilities of the chain, we run the risk of our adversaries rendering us helpless before the traditional concerns even become an issue,” Kassabov said.
The working group was established on Aug. 30. It follows various presidential and congressional directives for the federal government and DoD to gain greater awareness of their supply chains, identify risks, close vulnerabilities and become more resilient.