Cyrus Jabbari stepped into the CDO role at U.S. Central Command in May, but his hiring wasn’t officially announced by the organization until this week.

In his new position, Jabbari will “oversee the strategic integration of data-driven solutions to enhance operational effectiveness across CENTCOM’s area of responsibility,” according to a press release.

Centcom has been on the cutting edge of U.S. military technology adoption. It has three units — Task Force 59 under Naval Forces Central Command, Task Force 99 under Air Forces Central, and Task Force 39 under Army Central — that in recent years have been experimenting with and deploying emerging tech such as AI and machine learning, data analytics, unmanned systems and cloud computing. The command has also adopted tools like the Maven Smart System to aid decision-making.

Jabbari isn’t a newcomer to the Defense Department. He previously served as the first-ever CDO in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. In that role, he was charged with developing, managing and overseeing implementation of data policies across the Pentagon’s R&E enterprise, including for organizations such as the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), Missile Defense Agency, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), Test Resource Management and Defense Technical Information Center, among others, according to his LinkedIn profile.

At the R&E directorate, he also chaired the Transition Tracking Action Group, which was stood up in February 2024 to boost DOD’s ability to keep tabs on, manage and make smart investments in technology transition efforts across the Pentagon’s vast capability development enterprise, all the way from the early stages of R&D to fielding, according to a press release.

The action group enabled “a new approach to technology portfolio management that leverages advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide DOD officials with the insights [they need] to make informed, innovative decisions,” Jabbari said in a statement last year.

Prior to that, Jabbari supported the Pentagon as a data and analytics lead at ANSER, a non-profit corporation that develops solutions for clients in the national security community, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“Thrilled to officially welcome a fantastic partner Cyrus J. to the team — it’s amazing when the right people end up on the right team and in the right position for the right mission at the right time — magic happens,” Centcom Chief Technology Officer Joy Angela Shanaberger said in a LinkedIn post Tuesday night.

In a separate statement, she said she was “confident his expertise will be a game-changer in our efforts to harness the power of data to drive warfighter-centric innovation across United States Central Command.”

“Joining CENTCOM is both a professional honor and personal calling. This command stands at the forefront of operational experimentation and complexity — where decisions must be made faster, with greater precision, and under immense pressure,” Jabbari said in a statement. “CENTCOM is where data must drive action and where data is valued as a warfighting asset. A lot of great leadership has put CENTCOM on the right path, and I am honored to carry us into our next phase of accelerating data capabilities for ever-pressing missions.”

The position of Centcom CDO was previously held by Michael Foster. He left the command in December near the end of the Biden administration and is currently chief data engineer at Raft, a defense technology company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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The Navy’s Brad Cooper will take over at Centcom and get his fourth star, succeeding Army Gen. Michael Kurilla in that role. The Air Force’s Alexus Grynkewich will lead Eucom and be promoted to four-star, succeeding Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli in that position. Grynkewich will be dual-hatted as NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe.

The officers were confirmed unanimously by voice vote along with a slew of other nominations.

Cooper previously served as deputy commander of Centcom. Before that, he led Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet, where he oversaw Task Force 59, which was established to help the Navy better integrate uncrewed systems and AI into its operations to strengthen the service’s maritime domain awareness.

Grynkewich had been serving as director of operations, J-3, with the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. Prior to that, he led Air Forces Central and Combined Forces Air Component Commander under U.S. Central Command. As commander of AFCENT, he was a booster for Task Force 99, which was stood up to operationally evaluate new drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and other missions.

Cooper is taking the helm at Centcom amid heightened tensions with Iran following the recent U.S. airstrike on Iranian nuclear sites with B-2 stealth bombers and 30,000-pound “massive ordnance penetrator” (MOP) weapons during Operation Midnight Hammer. Earlier this year, the command was combating Yemen’s Houthis during Operation Rough Rider.

In written responses to lawmakers’ advance policy questions ahead of his confirmation hearing, Cooper said that as Centcom commander, he would “launch new initiatives that advance our overmatch through the employment of cutting-edge technologies, including AI-enabled, unmanned platforms and digital integration. Ultimately, we must protect our homeland, counter malign influence, ensure freedom of navigation, compete strategically, and ensure USCENTCOM remains a combat-credible force for security in the region.”

Similarly, Grynkewich will command Eucom as the Ukraine-Russia war — in which drones and counter-drone systems have played a major role — rages on and U.S. military leaders are drawing lessons from the conflict.

“Since the conflict in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, warfare has evolved at a pace unseen since the Cold War’s end. Ukraine and Russia have developed and deployed new technologies and tactics on an innovation cycle of months rather than years. As a result, the U.S. Joint Force has established multiple cells to consistently analyze advancements and integrate lessons learned from the battlefield into U.S. and NATO exercises. For example, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have rapidly innovated their use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and uncrewed surface vessels (USV). UAS and USV operations are now conducted at scale, with significant impact and continuous technological updates. This attribute of the modern battlefield is fostering a shift to a culture of innovation, agility, and lethality across all elements of the U.S. and NATO Joint Force, from industry to operators,” he wrote.

Grynkewich told senators that as commander of Eucom, he would be “a strong advocate for continued investment and prioritization of funding for the fielding and protection of innovative logistics capabilities, such as AI-enabled tools with predictive analytics and autonomous distribution systems.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee still hasn’t scheduled confirmation hearings for several other Trump nominees for key positions at the Defense Department, including Marine Corps Gen. Christopher Mahoney, who was picked to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, who was selected for chief of naval operations; Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, who’s been tapped to command U.S. Africa Command; Navy Vice Adm. Frank Bradley, who was chosen to lead U.S. Special Operations Command; and former congressional candidate and Green Beret Derrick Anderson, who was put forth to serve as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict after the nomination of Air Force veteran Michael Jensen for the ASD SO/LIC job was withdrawn without explanation.

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The comments by Vice Adm. Brad Cooper — the current deputy commander of Centcom, who’s been nominated for the top job and promotion to four-star — came just a couple of days after U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure that featured the first-ever combat employment of “massive ordnance penetrator” bombs.

The Air Force dropped 14 of the so-called MOP weapons from B-2 Spirit stealth bombers during the mission, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer.

It’s unclear how many MOPs or other so-called bunker-buster weapons the Pentagon still has in its arsenal in the wake of the operation. The Defense Department typically does not publicly disclose specific numbers for its munition stockpiles.

“As we’ve seen throughout the region, groups are going underground, [such as] Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis,” Cooper told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing Tuesday. “This is a serious issue that we will have to look at in the future.”

Nation-state and non-state actors have built bunkers, tunnels and other underground facilities to make their personnel and systems more difficult to locate and target.

“I think in the Central Command, and I think we would have to anticipate in the future, globally, you’re going to see threats begin to go underground, whether we’re talking about Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Iranians, other adversaries are clearly watching and see where they can gain advantage. In my current capacity, I have visited on multiple occasions the subterranean commando unit in Israel that goes after this problem set. I think, as we look to the future, and if confirmed, I think we need to focus on two areas — sensors and munitions. And if confirmed, I would advocate for both of those,” Cooper said.

Lawmakers and Pentagon officials in recent years have been beating the drum about the need to increase U.S. production of a variety of munitions and other systems as observers have watched forces expend large numbers of missiles and drones in places like Ukraine and the Middle East.

Cooper on Tuesday said he welcomed ideas like the FORGED Act and other measures that could help the Defense Department cut through red tape and bring new technologies into its arsenal.

Another concern raised by lawmakers during the hearing was the growing threat posed by adversaries’ unmanned aerial systems. American troops have come under attack from enemy drones in recent years, including at Tower 22 in Jordan. The weapons have also played a huge role in the Ukraine-Russia war and the recent Israel-Iran war.

Counter-drone capabilities are in high demand, especially in places like the Centcom region.

“I do agree that the nature and the character of warfare is changing before our very eyes, and this is why I think the important work of this committee, whether it’s the FORGED Act or anything associated with it, where you can accelerate the delivery of counter-UAS systems or other warfighting tools into the hands of the warfighters, forward — those are all value added and needed imminently,” Cooper said.

“If I look back specifically toward the Tower 22 incident in the ensuing now 17 or 18 months, we’ve made considerable improvements across the board — layered defense, employing both kinetic capability and non-kinetic capability. We really are leaps and bounds ahead of where we were before. Having said that, I would never be satisfied that we have the maximum readiness. I’ll never be satisfied that we have enough to protect our men and women in uniform. And if confirmed, I would focus on this every single day,” he added.

During his previous assignment as commander of Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet, Cooper oversaw Task Force 59, which focuses on combining AI, uncrewed systems — including commercially owned platforms — and other digital and communications tools to boost the command’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in the Middle East.

In written responses to lawmakers’ advance policy questions ahead of his confirmation hearing, Cooper said that, if confirmed as Centcom commander, he would launch new initiatives to advance U.S. military “overmatch” through the employment of cutting-edge technologies, including AI-enabled unmanned platforms and digital integration.

“In my own experience, having commanded the Navy’s first unmanned and artificial intelligence task force, I’m very familiar with the capabilities that exist in America’s elite tech sector. I believe that we need to leverage that tech sector to maximum capability and deliver capability in the very near term, because we could do more,” he told lawmakers at Tuesday’s hearing.

Cooper’s selection to command Centcom is unlikely to face major political opposition in the Senate, and his nomination is expected to be confirmed.

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On Thursday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich has been tapped by the commander-in-chief for appointment to the grade of general and assignment as commander of U.S. European Command. NATO has also agreed to appoint him as supreme allied commander Europe, according to the announcement.

Grynkewich is currently serving as director of operations, J-3, with the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. Prior to that, he led Air Forces Central and Combined Forces Air Component Commander under U.S. Central Command. As commander of AFCENT, he championed the work of Task Force 99, which was stood up to operationally evaluate new drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and other missions.

If confirmed, Grynkewich would assume the top military leadership role in NATO as the alliance is pursuing AI and other new tech as well as new relationships with non-traditional industry. The Trump administration is also pushing other members of NATO to shoulder more of the burden for defense of Europe, stating that the U.S. military needs to focus more on the Pacific and homeland defense.

On Wednesday, Hegseth announced that Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper was nominated for appointment to the grade of admiral, with assignment as commander of Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East region. Cooper is currently serving as deputy commander.

Centcom’s area of responsibility has long been a hotspot for U.S. military actions against militant groups and nation-state actors, including recently battling the Houthis and trying to thwart their drone and missile attacks against vessels in the Red Sea.

Prior to his current job, Cooper led Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet, where he was a big proponent of Task Force 59, which was established to help the Navy better integrate uncrewed systems and AI into its operations to strengthen the service’s maritime domain awareness.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson has been tapped to become a four-star and command U.S. Africa Command. Africom earlier this year was given expanded authority by Trump to attack terrorist targets in its area of responsibility and is adjusting its posture as it tries to deal with growing threats.

Anderson has held a number of positions in the special operations community during his career, including as commander of Special Operations Command-Africa, among other assignments. He’s currently serving as director of joint force development, J-7, with the Joint Staff at the Pentagon.

On Tuesday, Hegseth announced that Vice Adm. Frank Bradley, who comes from the Navy SEAL community, was selected for appointment to the grade of admiral and to lead U.S. Special Operations Command. He’s currently serving as commander of Joint Special Operations Command.

SOCOM has been a leader within the Defense Department in adopting cutting-edge tech such as AI and other digital tools, including via its SOF Digital Applications program executive office. The command recently released an updated strategy dubbed SOF Renaissance, which laid out SOCOM’s vision for how the force needs to transform to meet future challenges by adopting new technologies and other reforms, including modernization efforts geared toward surface and subsurface maritime platforms; next-generation ISR; mission command systems; and collaborative and autonomous unmanned systems.

In other SOF-related personnel news this week, Trump on Monday nominated former congressional candidate and Green Beret Derrick Anderson to serve as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.

The nominees must be confirmed by the Senate to take on those new roles.

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If confirmed, Phelan — a businessman and co-founder of MSD Capital — would take the helm of the department as it pursues new drones and a “hybrid fleet” of manned and unmanned systems, among other modernization efforts. Service leadership is also in flux in the wake of Trump’s firing of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti last week.

“I understand that the F/A-XX next-generation [fighter] aircraft, offering significant advancements in operational reach and capacity within contested environments, is intended to enable Carrier Strike Groups to outpace adversaries while maintaining naval air dominance. I also understand the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force are collaborating closely to ensure interoperability through shared enabling technologies like autonomy, mission systems, and communication architectures. This collaborative approach, encompassing both manned and unmanned platforms, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), will maximize operational effectiveness and flexibility across the services,” Phelan wrote in response to advance policy questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing Thursday.

“In my view, aligning technology development and operational requirements will ensure the Services are poised to fully leverage next-generation unmanned systems, ultimately enhancing capabilities and long-range mission effectiveness,” he added.

The Pentagon envisions highly autonomous CCA drones serving as robotic wingmen to manned fighter jets or performing separate missions. The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are each pursuing their own variants, which they hope to field in the coming years. The Air Force is widely seen as being ahead of the other branches in their pursuit of these types of platforms.

The Navy also aims to develop and field a next-generation manned fighter jet, currently referred to as the F/A-XX, that it hopes to field in the 2030s. An Air Force decision about the future of its manned, next-gen stealth fighter program— which was part of the Next Generation Air Dominance initiative — was postponed late last year amid the transition in presidential administrations.

Phelan told lawmakers that he would advocate for “smart investments” in the Navy’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, highlighting the need to foster industry competition, including non-traditional contractors, with the aim of driving down costs, accelerating timelines and maintaining the Navy’s technological superiority.

He also noted that he would prioritize “timely” modifications to Nimitz-class aircraft carriers for unmanned system integration.

Defense officials have expressed a desire to ensure interoperability between the services’ future crewed and uncrewed systems. Phelan — who has never served in the military — endorsed that idea in his comments to senators.

“I understand the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are aligned on key enabling technologies, including mission systems, autonomy architecture, and communication and command architecture. This alignment ensures that both manned and unmanned platforms can operate effectively together, enhancing interoperability across branches. If confirmed, I will commit to continue collaboration with the other services and the Office of the Secretary of Defense to ensure that systems are compatible and ready to integrate seamlessly in joint operations, supporting interservice coordination and maximizing mission effectiveness,” he wrote.

The Navy isn’t just looking to field next-gen unmanned aerial systems. It’s also pursuing new unmanned surface vessels and unmanned underwater vehicles, as it works to build a so-called hybrid fleet of crewed and uncrewed platforms.

Accelerating the fielding of those types of systems to deter China in the Indo-Pacific was part of Franchetti’s Project 33 and CNO Navigation Plan, which she unveiled a few months before she got fired.

The Navy has also been playing a key role in the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which was launched during the Biden administration with the goal of fielding thousands of “all-domain attritable autonomous systems” by August 2025.

The sea service has also set up new organizations, such as Task Force 59 and robo-ship squadrons, to work through concepts of operation and other issues that need to be addressed.

Phelan didn’t refer to Replicator by name in his written comments to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, but he suggested that he’s in favor of those types of efforts.

“The unique capabilities that unmanned systems bring to the naval and joint force are a tremendous force multiplier, and I believe the Department of the Navy should appropriately and adequately resource the right solutions and doctrine, organization, training, personnel and facilities that support these capabilities, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. There can be no dispute that unmanned systems are now very much part of the landscape of modern war,” he wrote.

“Also revealed is the rapid pace of innovation for these systems, as well as the rapid operational adoption of the evolving systems in battle,” he added. “If confirmed, I will thoroughly examine this issue to ensure the Department of the Navy investments are properly prioritized in this area by ensuring appropriate system selection through early, data-driven analysis. This will include championing joint investment in enabling technologies like autonomy, mission systems, and communications to guarantee interoperability across services and with coalition partners, for example through ongoing all-domain attritable autonomous systems efforts.”

Phelan is the second of Trump’s service secretary nominees during his second term to have a confirmation hearing. Earlier this week, Daniel Driscoll was confirmed as secretary of the Army. A confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for Air Force secretary, Troy Meink, has not been scheduled.

Trump’s nominee for deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, also testified earlier this week.

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This year, that engagement — U.S. Naval Forces Central Command’s International Maritime Exercise 25 — is supplying new pathways for theater-to-theater interoperability and technology-enabled cooperation in conjunction with U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa’s Cutlass Express exercise. 

“Since Feb. 9, [IMX 25] has hit the ground running with several operational events, to include but not limited to maritime security operations, mine countermeasures, global health management, and unmanned systems/artificial intelligence,” a Navy spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email Monday. 

Other key areas of focus in the exercise include explosive ordnance disposal, search and rescue, vessel defense, and mass casualty response. 

IMX 25, which officially kicked off from separate locations in Bahrain and Jordan on Feb. 10, is the ninth iteration of the growing event since its launch in 2012. 

The spokesperson pointed to several “highlights” on the IMX itinerary this year, such as the Command Post Exercise, which “provides commanders and deputy commanders from various nations the capability to make decisions alongside multiple partners.”

“The many different subject matter expert exchanges continue to improve our cross-organization, integration, information-sharing and de-conflict command-and-control structures across multiple nations,” they told DefenseScoop.

Previous IMX iterations encompassed similar (and similarly obscure) efforts to drive integration across the international partners’ AI and drone capabilities.

The Navy spokesperson did not directly respond to DefenseScoop’s questions regarding how those involved are jointly testing and enabling new and emerging operations with AI and unmanned systems in this iteration. They instead pointed to the Navy’s first autonomous tech-pushing unit, Task Force 59. 

“Established in September 2021, TF 59 has already been involved in several multilateral and bilateral exercises in the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command area of operations to enhance maritime security within the region. To date, it has tested, upgraded, evolved and operated with more than 23 different unmanned systems,” the spokesperson said.

As with IMX events in the past, this iteration also combined efforts with U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa’s annual Cutlass Express exercise. 

The two are linked “in that U.S. Naval Forces Central Command has provided personnel to facilitate information-sharing between maritime operations centers across both International Maritime Exercise 25 and Cutlass Express,” the spokesperson noted.

Nations involved aim to strengthen and advance their systems’ connectivity — and increase strategic coordination between the Middle Eastern, African and European theaters, where multiple contemporary conflicts are unfolding. 

“International Maritime Exercise 25 is designed to demonstrate global resolve in preserving the rules-based international order, offering a unique opportunity for participants to collaborate and showcase regional maritime security cooperation,” the spokesperson said.

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Joy Angela Shanaberger, who recently served as a senior adviser to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks during the Biden administration, took on the CTO role at U.S. Central Command, which is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, last month.

“Joining a great team in the sunshine state,” Shanaberger wrote in a LinkedIn post, adding that she’s “ready to achieve big things together, deliberately.”

In her new job, Shanaberger is poised to play a key role in driving forward innovation efforts that have applicability across the military.

In addition to conducting operations against terrorist groups, the Iranian military and its proxies in recent months and years, Central Command is serving as a test bed for advanced technologies — including unmanned platforms, AI and machine learning, and counter-drone systems — via organizations like Task Force 59, Task Force 99, Task Force 39 and others.

Shanaberger succeeds Schuyler Moore, who served as the first-ever CTO at Centcom. Moore is now serving in an intelligence role at U.S. Naval Forces Europe headquarters in Naples, Italy, where she’s been mobilized by the Navy Reserve.

“Hat tip to Schuyler Moore for the incredible work accomplished in her tenure and setting me up for success. Looking forward to scaling up!” Shanaberger wrote on LinkedIn.

Moore wrote that the combatant command was “lucky” to have Shanaberger onboard.

According to Shanaberger’s LinkedIn profile, she previously founded a company called Boone, which she described as a “tech-acceleration company serving defense and intelligence communities with rapid tech deployment to the tactical edge.”

During the Obama administration, she served as a special assistant in what was then known as the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The AT&L directorate was subsequently split up to make way for separate Acquisition and Sustainment and Research and Engineering directorates.

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On a panel moderated by DefenseScoop Tuesday at a Scoop News Group-produced GDIT event, two Defense Department officials and two defense industry executives shared their latest insights on contemporary, real-world threats they’re tracking — at this convergence of IT systems, like computers and servers, with OT systems, like vehicles and medical devices — and how their teams are moving swiftly to adapt and respond.

“When we think about it, installations are our critical power projection platforms. They’re foundational to allow us to launch our critical missions, to ensure readiness, and really do power projection for the United States Air Force and for the DOD in general,” the Department of the Air Force’s acting Deputy Principal Cyber Advisor Lt. Col. Andrew Wonpat said.

“And when we think about cybersecurity, one of the big initiatives across the [DOD] and the U.S. government is zero trust. And that is transformative if we’re going to look at how we do that for operation technology,” he added.

Wonpat and the other panelists reflected on the broad landscape of global, existing and emerging OT vulnerabilities they’re monitoring and moving to mitigate.

Pointing to recent publicly reported numbers he pulled, Wonpat said that “China has approximately 100,000 cyber operators.” Noting that number could be an inflated estimation, he argued it’s best to assume that the real number could be much lower.  

“So, if we just extrapolate that, if China only has half of that — 50,000, that’s about the number of people in a [specific] town or a city within the United States — so that is significant for us from a military perspective, and the Department of Air Force to really grapple with,” Wonpat said.

Dwindling that down further, assuming only 10% of those personnel would be explicitly focused on OT efforts, it would still be about 5,000 people, which in his view is a lot for the service to contend with.

“So, how do we contend with those threats? One thing we did — one of the big initiatives — is [the Air Force established a new] organization called CROCS, or the Cyber Resiliency Office for Control Systems. They’re really responsible for coordinating and overseeing the cybersecurity of our control systems and operation technology, as well as defending critical infrastructure,” Wonpat explained. “And there’s a lot that goes into that.”

He confirmed that early lines of effort for the CROCS team include workforce, governance, visibility and prioritization activities, and transforming OT defense and response.

“I’m really excited about the CROCS organization … It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this in the department and we really need it,” Tony Robertiello, GDIT’s senior program director for Air Force enterprise IT programs, said.

For the Air Force and civil engineering community, GDIT provides cybersecurity and associated protection services for about 600 facility-related control systems across the globe in multiple forms. 

Spotlighting recent analysis the company has captured, Robertiello noted that the convergence between OT and IT across the internet protocol or IP space is currently considered to be an intensifying threat.

“We have inventory data for those 600 systems — 30,000 devices are IP-based. And these are devices that you don’t put certificates on them, but they could scan the network and could be attacked or could be a point of attack,” he explained.

The GDIT team is working in partnership with the 16th Air Force, an information warfare hub with OT data that Robertiello said they’ve never had access to before. 

“What’s no surprise now is that the top 10 systems in the Air Force of all the systems that they track data on — the most vulnerable systems, that top 10 — it’s OT systems. These are legacy systems. So, the threat is real out there against these types of systems,” Robertiello said.

He and other panelists also discussed Volt Typhoon and similar recent OT attacks aligned with what is reportedly China-backed advanced persistent threat (APT) groups, targeting critical infrastructure.

“One observation I will make is that if you look at what’s publicly reported, the Typhoon family is not doing the ransomware phishing attacks. They’re chaining vulnerabilities together and developing some legitimately sophisticated ways of intruding in the systems. The good news about that is that it means the sort of traditional stuff is less effective. So, some of the things that we’ve been doing for years — trying to secure systems and teach people about phishing — some of that is having an effect,” said Terry Kalka, director of the defense industrial base collaborative information-sharing environment at DOD’s Cyber Crime Center (DC3).

Officials inside DC3 are executing on what he referred to as defensive missions on DOD networks, as well as for the defense industrial base.

“One of the things we’ve had a lot of success in is vulnerability disclosure, where we work with white hat open-source or crowd-sourced researchers to look for vulnerabilities on public infrastructure,” Kafka said.

In the eight years since that program launched, around 50,000 vulnerability reports have been submitted, and heaps of patches have been made in response. More recently, the DC3 opted to build on that momentum by setting up a defense industrial base vulnerable disclosure program. 

“Now there’s an IBM report that estimates the cost of a data breach each year. This year, they say a data breach costs, on average, $4.8 million. I’m not going to try to do the math onstage. But if we have so far, in the DIBVDP, mitigated 59 vulnerabilities in six months … that’s about $288 million that we’ve saved industry and therefore saved the taxpayer. That’s a nice statistic if you have to go ask for cybersecurity money. And secondly, it’s a real, tangible effect in terms of what’s publicly available and how can we close that off as a way of entry,” Kalka said.

Autonomous endpoint management is another increasingly powerful solution the panelists highlighted. 

Sam Kinch, who previously worked at U.S. Cyber Command and is now an executive client advisor at Tanium, brought up a recent statistic that 70 percent of successful breaches start at the end point, which he said further reflects the growing need for organizations to capture IT and OT assets under one single umbrella of real-time visibility.

“One of the other stats that came out of DOD recently, if you look at the IT estate across their enterprise, it’s about 4 million endpoints they project right now. And they don’t know, but they’re projecting 15 to 18 million endpoints when you include the OT side of the house,” he noted.

“How is that for a target surface in a vulnerability state? Autonomous endpoint management is going to be essential. And what that means to us is really, how do you incorporate autonomy and automation into the process flows so you can reduce risk and drive down the mistakes that get made from mundane tasks nobody wants to do?” Kinch said.

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The latest Digital Talon exercise, conducted earlier this month in the Middle East region, included a variety of robotic capabilities that could play a significant role in future conflicts.

“Digital Talon 3.0 … tested the electronic and mechanical effectiveness of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), the capabilities of over-the-horizon communications between unmanned systems, and testing aerial autonomous launch and recovery of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) off a unmanned surface vessel (USV),” NAVCENT stated in a press release Sunday.

The exercise involved Task Group 59.1, which was established earlier this year and reports to Task Force 59 — a key unit based in the Middle East under 5th Fleet that’s helping the Navy operationalize AI and uncrewed platforms for real-world missions.

“Under Digital Talon 3.0 we were able to test the remote launch of a loitering munition, and vertical take-off and landing of UAVs from a USV,” Lt. Luis Echeverria, commanding officer of the new task group, said in a statement, adding that these “evolutions resulted in the successful remote launch of a loitering munition at sea.”

This wasn’t the first time that a robo-ship operated by the Navy launched a kamikaze drone.

During a Digital Talon exercise last year, the unit successfully attacked a target boat with a “Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System” fired from a MARTAC T-38 Devil Ray USV, according to officials.

However, the latest iteration of the exercise expanded the over-the-horizon capabilities of these types of uncrewed systems, according to Echeverria.

These efforts are unfolding as the Navy steams ahead with new initiatives to incorporate more unmanned and autonomous technologies into the force.

The sea service established a new “robotics warfare specialist” general rating earlier this year.

“RW Sailors will enable Robotic and Autonomous System (RAS) operations and maintenance at the tactical edge. RWs will be the subject matter experts for computer vision, mission autonomy, navigation autonomy, data systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning on our RAS platforms,” according to a NAVADMIN announcement from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti released in February.

In September, Franchetti unveiled “Project 33,” which is part of her “CNO Navigation Plan” and places a heavy emphasis on robotic systems and information dominance as the service prepares for a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific.

“The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has told his forces to be ready for war by 2027 — we will be more ready,” Franchetti wrote, acknowledging that the Defense Department “cannot manifest a bigger traditional Navy in a few short years.”

Incorporating more robo-ships and other uncrewed platforms into the fleet is seen as a solution to that problem.

“Project 33 is how we will get more ready players on the field by 2027,” she added, stating that the sea service will by then have integrated proven robotic and autonomous systems for routine use by the commanders who will employ them.

Senior Navy officials envision these types of systems as being useful for sea-denial missions.

Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said unmanned platforms like those that are part of the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative offer significant benefits. They fit in with the “Hellscape” warfighting concept that he’s laid out for a potential conflict with China in the Taiwan Strait.

“Certainly, these systems are ideal in enclosed spaces … if you can deploy it,” he said last week at a Brookings Institution event. “For closed spaces, for executing sea denial, this can be a very key capability.”

Technologies that the Pentagon is trying to accelerate under Replicator include loitering munitions and other types of drones, USVs and unmanned underwater vehicles, among other tools.

Last week, the Defense Innovation Unit, which is playing a key role in the initiative, unveiled the recent winners of Replicator software contracts.

Meanwhile, Task Force 59 and Task Group 59.1 aren’t the only Navy units experimenting with new unmanned systems.

Earlier this year, the service stood up Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron Three (USVRON Three) in San Diego to oversee a “fleet” of small uncrewed surface vessels, including the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC). The organization is expected to help build the foundational knowledge required to operate and maintain small USVs and develop tactics, techniques and procedures for operations and sustainment, according to officials.

Using uncrewed surface vessels to launch loitering munitions and other types of UAVs could be a new tactic that the Navy introduces for warfighting in the coming years.

The first two Digital Talon exercises, held about a year ago, “advanced lethality and kinetic applications for unmanned systems,” but version 3.0 “examined more advanced tactics,” according to the NAVCENT news release, which attributed the observation to Royal Navy Lt. Samuel Hendy, executive officer of Task Group 59.1.

“As with all pioneering ventures and first-of-its-kind feats, there are plenty of challenges to overcome, lessons to be analyzed, but we are a learning organization and it all combines to further benefit 5th Fleets’ understanding and employment of this state-of-the-art warfare,” Hendy said in a statement. “If there is one thing we can take away, Digital Talon 3.0 affirms that the U.S. Navy, as well as her partner nations, remains at the forefront of cutting-edge unmanned system integration and deployment.”

The loitering munition fired during the exercise was a Switchblade 600, a NAVCENT spokesperson told DefenseScoop. That platform, built by AeroVironment, is also one of the systems selected for accelerated acquisition by the U.S. military via Replicator.

The drone is designed to carry high-precision optics and an anti-armor warhead. It has upwards of 40 minutes of loitering endurance, a range of 40-plus kilometers, and a “sprint speed” of 185 kilometers per hour, according to a product description from the vendor. The all-up round weighs 65 pounds.

“Equipped with class-leading, high-resolution EO/IR gimbaled sensors and advanced precision flight control, Switchblade 600 empowers the warfighter with quick and easy deployment via tube-launch, and the capability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal effects without the need for external ISR or fires assets,” according to a company product description, which noted that the system’s “wave-off and recommit capability allows operators to abort the mission at any time and then re-engage either the same or other targets multiple times based on operator command.”

With regard to the USV and other drones that were involved in the latest Digital Talon exercise, the NAVCENT spokesperson said: “Specific effects and capabilities relevant to Digital Talon 3.0 were provided via GSA contracts for contractor-owned, contractor-operated platforms.”

The commander of Special Operations Forces Central Command, Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Devastator, U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class fast response cutter USCGC Emlen Tunnell and industry partners also participated in the event, according to NAVCENT.

Updated on Nov. 26, 2024, at 3:30 PM: This story has been updated to include additional information provided to DefenseScoop by a NAVCENT spokesperson regarding the loitering munition and other capabilities that were involved in Digital Talon 3.0.

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In an email after making the announcement of her departure on social media, Moore told DefenseScoop that in addition to her civilian roles, she’s also served in the sea service’s reserves for the last four years.

It was in that capacity as a reservist that Moore previously made waves as a rising star at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command’s innovation-pushing Task Force 59 in Bahrain. Now, she said, the service is mobilizing her to U.S. European Command’s Navy component for one year as an intelligence officer.

Moore said in the email that while she’s sad to leave her team at Centcom, she’s looking forward to gaining more experience in uniform. 

Centcom personnel responded to — and captured critical data on — disruptive, real-world attacks from Iran-backed rebels and other threats in waters around the Middle East during Moore’s tenure. Even before she arrived, that command had built a reputation as one of the Defense Department’s leading early AI adopters. 

And with Moore as CTO, that hub has accelerated military technology deployments via modern and rapid experimentation series, and steadily refined high-tech computer vision, pattern detection, and decision support capabilities for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and other missions.  

In the email with DefenseScoop, Moore declined to share the name of the person who’s been tapped to succeed her at Centcom, but called them a “rockstar.”

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