Metaphors for war are used throughout the world of business but how does one plan for strategy and attacks when they are in the actual “business” of war. In today’s environment, “Command and Control” strategies must not just work across land, air and seam but also space and cyberspace, creating a new set of challenges for military planners. From advanced weaponry to data to secure communications, technology is now front and center to how any Army will operate, fight and win future wars, with connectivity as the backbone powering it all.
In this episode of The Restless Ones, we sit with Dr. Raj Iyer, CIO for the Department of the U.S. Army, whose sense of duty has put him at the center of the military’s effort to upgrade its defenses and capabilities across a variety of battlefields. In this newly created role, he’s responsible for the Army’s IT, Information Management, Cybersecurity and Digital Transformation initiatives. Whether nation-states, hypersonic missiles, or advanced hackers, his needs to develop the tools to battle any attack. With 1.4 million soldiers, civilians and contractors relying on his team’s technical prowess to provide a state of readiness, Dr. Iyer, believes a blend of public-private partnerships and inspiring technologists across the branch are the keys needed to achieve modernization at the scale of the Army in time to meet its, and the country’s latest threats.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every one of our weapons system platforms is now collecting
vast volumes of data, so modernizing our networks and going
wireless is a top priority for us this year. We
actually just release the Army's Unified Network Plan, and there's
a few important pieces in that. One is leveraging five
G to the greatest extent possible. We have a number
of pilots underway at some of our basis to look
(00:23):
at how we can use five G for augmented reality
and virtual reality, as well as things like autonomous driving
and so on. Welcome to the restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
I've spent more than a decade really learning about technology,
what makes it tick, and then describing and explaining that
(00:44):
to my audience. But it's the conversations with the world's
most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the intersection of technology
and business, that fascinate me the most. In partnership with
T Mobile for Business, I explore the unique set of
challenges that c t o s and see iOS and
other tech executives face from advancements in cloud and edge computing,
(01:05):
software as a service, internet of things, and of course
five G. We are often left wondering how the leading
minds and business continue to thrive. Let's find out. Our
guest today is Dr Rajayer see i Oh for the
United States Army. Dr Iyer has a long career in
(01:26):
technology and in multiple roles before he accepted the job
as c i O of the U. S. Army. He
and his department are hard at work on a massive
task modernizing the United States Army, with a goal of
reaching an interim operational capacity by twenty eight I always
enjoy speaking with my guests on this show, and I
(01:49):
always respect the challenges they face, But in this case,
we were talking about an entirely different level of stakes.
It was clear to me that Dr Iyer keeps in
mind the safety of the United States, It's citizens, those
serving in the military, and our allies around the world.
That's a level of responsibility that is quite frankly difficult
(02:11):
for me to get my mind around. I sat down
with Dr Iyer to talk about his role, the challenges
the U. S. Army faces, and how the information landscape
has changed dramatically. But first I wanted to know a
little bit about flight simulators. Dr Iyer, thank you so
much for joining us on the restless ones. This is
(02:33):
a real pleasure. Oh, thank you for the opportunity. My pleasure. Well,
I always like to to start off every episode getting
to know my guest a bit more, and I happened
to have seen that early on in your career, you
worked in some systems that included flight simulators, so I
was just curious, how how do you think flight simulators
(02:55):
have evolved. I'm constantly amazed by them. Oh, isn't it.
I mean, you know, the kind of flight simulators we
built thirty years ago, with the kind of technology we had,
there is nothing in comparison to what we have on
our cell phones today. I mean, I remember I had
to write assembly language programming using parallel processing chips to
(03:17):
do some very basic graphics for F sixteen cockpit displays,
and you can get far more sophisticated graphics today on
just on your cell phones. So clearly technology has come
a long way. And that's just one perfect example. Yeah.
I think of that as almost like a microcosm of
how technology has advanced dramatically over the last few decades,
(03:39):
where we've seen this explosion in data in all aspects
of our lives, including in flight simulators. We have the
machines capable of processing the information and making meaningful outcomes.
And I suspect that's going to be a big part
of our conversation today, particularly when it comes to the
efforts of of creating a modernized army. But before I
(04:00):
get into that, uh, I know that a lot of
your career has also been involved in various tech leadership
roles within the U. S. Army. How did you first
start working for the army. Yeah, it all began in
early two thousands. I had co founded a high tech
startup company right out of college, did that for ten years,
threw that to a successful company, and it was really
(04:22):
looking for something new and different to do. And after
nine eleven happened and I looked at you know, as
we got into the Global War on Terror, there was
a huge technology deficit, you know, in the United States
Army as you probably are tracking the decade before that
for that for US in the United States, you know,
it was was an arrow of peace. It was post
(04:42):
Cold War, and you know, it was very clear that
the U. S. Military had kind of dwindled in terms
of its technology strength. And so when we went to
war in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early two thousand's,
it was very clear that, you know, we were already
challenged technologically, So it was just that kind of call
to duty. I wanted to do something to return what
(05:04):
this nation had done for me as a as a
first generation immigrant, and I thought was my duty to
come serve and I did that as a as an
army civilian starting in two thousand two. See and that,
to me is just an amazing story about your character
to go from start up in the private space and
then dedicate so much of your professional career towards helping
(05:26):
in various aspects in the army. I want to learn
more about how you became the first civilian CIO of
the U. S. Army. How did that actually come to pass.
I actually, you know, was a partner that wanted the
big four consulting firms and actively engaged in the defense
sector and working with the army quite a bit from
the outside and out of the blue. One day I
(05:49):
got a call from the Pentagon asking if I was
available to come talk to them, and I said, well,
what was it about? And they said, well, you know
you've been searched in for you know, c I o
to come in from industry. It's a brand new position.
We've not had that position before. And my first reaction was,
(06:09):
I don't think I'm the guy. You know, it's a
really complex position. The challenges are tremendous. And for one,
for for somebody who who had been in the Army
for the ten you know, for ten years before that,
I knew what some of those challenges were. And I
kept asking them, are you really sure you know this
is this is what you want, because you know, you
could find a whole bunch of other people that were
(06:30):
really qualified to do this. But before I knew it,
you know, one discussion led to another, and as I
heard more about the challenges that the Army was having,
it really took me back, you know, twenty years so
the first time, you know, when I came to work
for the Army, and this time around, the challenges were
very different. Um, you know, after twenty years of fighting
you know, in the Middle East. Here again we were,
(06:53):
you know, at at a pivotal time when it comes
to the nation security, where you know, we have seen
the right seeing powers of China and Russia and and
the Army falling, starting to fall back technologically. And as
I heard more about the sense of urgency and what
was in front of us, and it was very clear
to me that you know, this was again a call
(07:14):
to duty and it's an honor and a privilege to
be the Armies for c I O. But it's you know,
I'm coming in at a time when you know, we
got some big challenges in terms of keeping our nations safe.
So how do you describe what it is you do
in a way that can make sense to like the
average person. Yeah, So at the end of the day,
you know, all things digital fall under my oversight. So
(07:36):
I reported the Secretary of the Army, and the way
the Army and the DUODE structured is that the secretariat
side of the military establishes policy, the strategy, and it's
responsible for the you know, overall oversight for all of
the implementation. And so when it comes to information technology,
information management, cybersecurity and all things digital transformation, that is
(08:02):
basically my responsibility. Given how large the Army is, it
always amazes me for somebody coming in from the private sector,
look at how big we are, one point four million soldiers,
civilians and contractors worldwide, and the mission being executed by
multiple commands and theaters it's a scale and complexity that's
unheard of even in any fortunate Hunt company. And so,
(08:25):
you know, orchestrating the technology for this vast enterprise through
a budget of sixteen billion dollars annually means that it's
really important that we understand what requirements are, establishing the
priorities and ensuring alignment of that vision, you know, to
the strategic comparatives. So that is the role of the
c I oh, it is it is. I see myself
(08:45):
as being front and center to how the Army is
modernizing for the future. And it is not a back
office function. It is not one where you know, we're
asked to go in and fix people's laptops. It is
one where we have really put technologgy front and center
to how the Army is going to operate in future
and fight in wind wars. You've touched on the scale,
(09:05):
I mean, obviously, it's it's huge and beyond, like you said,
beyond what the fortune five hungry companies typically see. How
can you give us an idea about the scale of
your department in particular. Yeah, so when it comes to
the digital workforce, which is you know what I'm responsible for,
there were about seventy two employees. That's uh, military, civilians,
(09:26):
and contractors. Like I said, we have a budget of
about sixteen billion dollars annually. I think that it's the
largest of all of the services in the in the
Department of Defense, and it's certainly larger than any government
agency that we can track. So it's a it's a
massive budget. But more importantly, you know, it is the size,
(09:48):
scale and complexity of the worldwide mission. And what I
tell people is that, you know, although you might see
the Army, you know, fighting wars overseas, we also have
a mission at home and that's through the National Guarden Reserves.
Last year, you know, not only very responsible for you know,
efforts in Southwest Asia and supporting you know, the retrograde
(10:10):
and the operations back from Afghanistan and supporting the the
evacuation of refugees, but at the homeland, you know, we
were responsible for fighting wildfires on the West coast, to
hurricanes in the south, to the COVID you know, vaccination effort,
and to all the civil undreust that we had through
Black Lives Matter to all the way to what happened
(10:33):
on post elections. So so as you can see, the
mission is wide, it is global in nature, and every
aspect of our operation has an information technology element associated
with it because at the end of the day, that's
how we command and control our our force. And if
you do not have the right technology to command and control,
(10:53):
then you know, operationally we're not effective. Well, Dryer, I
think it would be great for us to kind of
segue and talk a little bit more about your your
leadership role and strategy over at U S. Army. One
of the things I was really curious about because we
have talked to a lot of ce I O S
and c T O S in uh In. In private business,
(11:14):
one of the things that is often challenging is getting
buy in from various stakeholders. I imagine with the organization
of the U. S. Army it's a very different approach.
So what sort of what is sort of the situation
when you need to try and get buy in from
various parties to support a specific initiative. Absolutely so, I
(11:38):
literally spend ninety percent of my time, you know, in
terms of achieving that kind of alignment to vision, the
strategic vision and I and I use a few techniques.
One is it's absolutely important that we set the vision,
the clarity of the mission, and then to be able
to communicate that across the workforce. And if you've been
able to do that, that's the first step in the process,
(12:00):
because if you have if you don't have clarity of
what you're doing and you're not able to communicate that
to all the stakeholders, then your very first step of
the process is broke. The second is making sure that
we achieve unity of effort. And again, you know, as
the Army c I OH, I always tell people that
you know the eye and the C I O stands
for inspiration. So I'm here to inspire you know, the
(12:22):
rest of the Army to do the right things. There's
no way, given the scale and complexity of the mission,
that we can centralize and do everything from my office.
So I am here to enable that innovation and transformation
across the army. It truly has to be democratized. So
so I'm all in favor of the Army commands worldwide
(12:43):
innovating and implementing and modernizing their their technology. But as
long as they do that in alignment with our strategy,
and we have good alignment and good unity of efforts,
so that we're not stepping on each other's toes and
we don't have duplication of effort. I think we have
a good model for how we can actually democratize this
across the Army. And then finally, you know, we always
(13:05):
have to bring compliance into play because you know, yes,
we want to make sure v A G We let
everybody do the right things, but at the end of
the day, we also want to make sure that we
have the oversight and compliance to make sure that people
are following the directors and policies that we've put in
place and that they are indeed working towards the in
state objectives and the outcomes that we're looking for. One
(13:27):
of the things we like to talk about a lot
on the show, are you know the ways that wireless
connectivity in particular have really impacted business and operations. How
is the development of high speed wireless connectivity changed how
the Army operates in the field if it if it
has in fact, and what other technologies that you rely
(13:47):
upon depend upon that kind of uh connectivity. Oh so,
when we operate in the field in theater, we're often
not often, we're always constrained by bandwidth and es. Actually,
you know, if you look at in the early days
when we were in Southwest Asia and Afghanistan. You know,
over the last twenty years now, we've actually built some
(14:08):
pretty sophisticated networks there that we left behind. But as
we move into new theaters, like you know in the
South Pacific, you know, Eastern Europe and so on, and
in Africa, we're always challenged in terms of having connectivity
to support our operations, and so we have relied quite
a bit on you know, military sat com that is
hard to get, is heavily constrained. Every one of our
(14:30):
weapons system platforms is now collecting vast volumes of data,
and if we're not able to take advantage of that
data send it back, you know, where we need that
data to be processed for decision making, and the network
and the bandwidth has become our limiting factor, then we're
not able to truly take advantage of data. So modernizing
our networks and going wireless is a top priority for us.
(14:53):
This year, we actually just released the Army's Unified Network Plan,
and that is how we're going to modernize the network.
And there's a few important pieces in that. One is
leveraging five G to the greatest extent possible. We have
a number of pilots underway at some of our bases
to look at how we can use five G for
augmented reality and virtual reality as well as things like
(15:14):
autonomous driving and so on. We're looking at private five
G on the tactical side, and one of the things
that I'm I would really like to get rid of
is all of their miles and miles of cabling. You know,
when you go to a forward talk or a FOB,
which you will find is miles and miles of cabling,
and and it's just you know, that approach is not expeditionary.
(15:34):
It doesn't give us the agility that we need to
move fast and and wireless technologies are here now, they
are secure, and we're starting to implement them at scale
across the Army. It's the same with WiFi across our installations.
We have as we start to modernize each of our installations,
we are putting in place now WiFi routers instead of
(15:55):
the traditional wired cabling that that we have seen in
our installations. And finally, we're starting to work with commercial
satcom providers like SpaceX and so that we can start
to take advantage of the connectivity and resiliency that comes
from satellite communications in parts of the world where we've
had very poor connectivity or poor access. At T Mobile
(16:19):
for Business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so
you can focus on what matters most. Where some see
another small town, we see businesses in need of connectivity,
so we built the largest five G network to cover cities, towns,
and the most interstate miles in between. Where some see
a caller in a queue, we see an opportunity for
our experts to provide solutions without transfers. Where some see
(16:42):
another virtual meeting, we see five G enabling wireless real
time translations almost anywhere you do business. Our unique approach
built America's largest, fastest five G network and also delivers
exceptional customer support and five G included in every plan,
so you get it all out trade offs. Unconventional thinking
is better for business. T Mobile for Business fastest five
(17:06):
G based on average overall combined five G speeds according
to Open Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October.
See five D device coverage and access details at to
mobile dot com. Next. I really wanted to dig down
and talk to Dr Iyer about information technology and how
(17:28):
the U. S. Army will achieve modernization, including through partnering
with the private sector. So I treat the private sector
and the software industry on the innovation that comes from
there as key partners on this journey. They are not
only partners, but I would say stakeholders as well. And
and so, given how we are now starting to adopt
(17:49):
technology in everything we do, it's absolutely critical that the
private sector understands our vision and and where we're headed.
We're now in this partnership more of us looking at
bringing them in early, you know, as as we developed requirements,
and then getting into prototyping and experimentation early. So one
(18:10):
of the premier events that the Army has established for
the last couple of years is called Project Convergence. And
and this is our effort to integrate a lot of
new technologies rapidly and then experimenting them, you know, in
an operational environment. So so two weeks back, you know,
we were at Humor in the desert where we brought
in literally a hundred ten new technologies over the you know,
(18:33):
over the last seven weeks, and we integrated them rapidly,
put them to test, and then we actually conducted live
fire experiments in in you know, in in the desert,
and all of that would not have possible if not
for the partnership that we had with industry. And and
this includes both traditional difference contractors as well as non
traditional contractors. You know that companies that have never worked
(18:56):
with the d D before but had some great technologies
that we had not taken advantage of. So one of
the things I do tell industry is, you know, even
as we do that, one of the requirements that we're
going to put on industry is, you know, try to
be open with your architectures, right. You know, when your industry,
you know, you want to obviously you want to drive
your revenue, but in this mission space that we're in,
(19:18):
it is all about interoperability. We've got to make sure
that the technologies and the architectures work when we can
put them together. And if you do not do that,
and you you're closed with your technology, then it's going
to be harder for us to you know, bring in
and adopt the innovation that you may have you may
have built. I had heard that Dr Eyer's modernization strategies
(19:39):
included leveraging some emerging technologies and wanted to learn more
about them and how he envisions the army using tech
like machine learning in the future. We have committed that,
you know, when we fight in future, it's going to
be in all domains, and that is land, air, ce space,
and cyberspace. So what this has done is it's taken
(20:00):
us from you know, operationally working at the brigade combat
team level two big you know, core division level fights
you know, in a in a large theater, right, and
so the scale and complexity of the future fight is
very different from you know, what we were fighting against
ices and and so when we have to fight like
(20:20):
that in future, not only do we have to interoperate
across those five domains, but it's also about how we're
able to very closely integrate and interoperate with our coalition
and allied nation partners. So that is the imperative. That's
how we're going to fight in future. Now, when you
start peeling the onion on that in terms of what
we need to do, it's all about how we're going
(20:42):
to achieve command and control, um, you know, in the
space across all domains. And when you look at you know,
how we empower commanders with decision making it comes down
to data, right, So they again it comes down to data,
is how much data can we give them and how
quickly can we get them the data and how quickly
(21:02):
can we rapidly process that data To be able to
enable the commander with multiple options, but to be able
to provide those that, you know, multiple options in that
decision space means that we're going to have to process
large volumes of data in almost near real time and
at a speed of war that we have you know,
(21:24):
in the past, not heard of. Right. So remember, not
only is the US investing in hypersonics, our near peer
adversaries are also investing in hypersonics. Right, So we're now
looking at missiles coming to us anywhere from you know,
five to eighteen times the speed of sound. And so
so when you operate in that kind of threat environment,
(21:44):
you no longer have the luxury of saying, hey, I
got hours to day's to figure out, you know, how
I'm going to process all this data and come up
with the courses of action. This is where you know,
artificial intelligence and machine learning come into play, because what
we have found is at when you have such large
volumes of data as great as our analysts are, and
(22:05):
and our soldiers are. You know, we're going to have
to argument that automated you know, decision making through AI
and machine learning and so so. So much of the
technology that we're building now into our weapons system platforms
is all about, you know, how do we process large
volumes of data coming from sensors and how do we
rapidly move that at you know, across multiple achealance and
(22:28):
make that available for command and control. I imagine a
big part of that must be creating the appropriate cloud
infrastructure in order to be able to share information rapidly
across the entire world. So is that something that your
department is looking at as well? Oh, we absolutely are
already in it. Right. So, over the last eighteen months,
(22:50):
we have actually built out our cloud infrastructure both for
unclassified and classified workloads, and so this year we're actually
starting to operationalize that by looking at, you know, how
do we start to build out those you know, mission
threads and use cases where you know, we can leverage
the compute and the storage it's available in the cloud
(23:13):
to process these large volumes of data and then the
transport that's needed from the cloud back to the tactical edge.
So it's really as leave frogging into the future with
these newer technologies rather than continue to procure and implement
legacy infrastructure. I'm boggled by the complexity of this. I mean,
one of the things that obviously every organization has to
(23:37):
look into is when you're applying artificial intelligence and machine learning,
to make sure that the models, uh don't have unintended
biases applied to them where they're finding quote unquote meaning
in data where there might just be noise and no signal,
and obviously in the realms we're talking about that sort
of thing is absolutely critical to make certain that that
(23:59):
in for nation and that the analysis of that information
is as accurate as we can possibly make it before
sending it back on for it to be part of
some decision making process, whether it's automated or a person's
behind it. Like I said, you know, this is not
a science experiment for us anymore. This is not a
nice to have. This is not a you know, typical
(24:20):
you know, science and technology initiative type effort. Yeah. I mean,
we we know that these technologies are here, they're real,
and we know our adversaries are already starting to use them.
And so I would say we're somewhat late to the game,
but we have made tremendous progress over the last twelve
to eighteen months, and the experimentation you know that we're
(24:42):
doing through Project Convergence, that and some of the exercises
and Pacific in Europe are starting to show that you
know that we we can indeed rapidly adopt these technologies
and they are an enabler. We will never rely on
technologies to automate any human decisions, but the volume of
data and the speed at which we needed cannot be
(25:02):
accomplished without such an automation. Today, of course, I couldn't
let Dr Iyer go without asking him one more thing,
dr Ira, I'm curious what gets you out of bed
in the morning, what inspires you to go in for
a day of work. So first, it's the urgency of
the change that we need to make. So we don't
(25:23):
have a lot of time. The Army has committed to
establishing a multi domain capable force by twenty eight and
we're now, you know, moving into two. We have an
aggressive plan of things that we've got to get done,
and there's a tremendous amount of work that's being done,
but it's it has to happen at a pace at
which the army and and the bureaucracy is not used
(25:45):
to in the past, and so breaking those barriers means
that you know, we're going to have to take some
very non traditional approaches to doing some things. So it
is that sense of urgency that keeps me going. The
second is the commitment and the brilliance of our p people.
And when I say our people, that's you know, the
the army workforce, but also all of the people that
(26:05):
are working with us from the outside. It's important to
make sure that you know, in this collaborative approach that
we're taking that they feel the same sense of urgency
that I do. But I see the same passion in
many of them, and their passion to keep our nation
safe is one that keeps me going every day. Dr.
I right. I couldn't ask for a better and more
(26:28):
inspiring answer to that question. And I am so appreciative
of your time. Thank you again for joining us on
the Restless Ones. Thank you for the opportunity to share
some of my thoughts. Dr. I are really drove home
that for the U. S. Army to do its job,
the United States must invest in not just catching up,
but also establishing a foundation that will allow for continued
(26:50):
evolution and rapid development of tech. It's not sufficient to
throw money in tech at a problem and then dust
your hands and walk away. Adversaries around the world will
continue to look for vulnerabilities, and the best way to
head them off is to continue to innovate. But that's
a job that's easier said than done. More often than not,
(27:12):
I think we assume huge organizations like the U. S.
Army are ill suited for the rapid development and deployment
of technologies and processes. I know I have made the
mistake of assuming the focus has always been on the
weapons in tech that soldiers rely upon on the front lines.
But the truth is that the tech stretches far beyond
(27:34):
the front lines and requires making some pretty radical changes
in a relatively short amount of time. I believe dr
Ayer's vision is one that puts us on the right track.
I want to thank dr Iyer once again for coming
on the show and sharing his valuable time with me.
I feel I have a much deeper appreciation for the
challenges we face as a nation, and I feel that
(27:56):
many of his insights apply well beyond the US Army.
Thank you for listening to the Restless Ones. This episode
caps off our second season. I want to thank all
of the c t o s and c I O
s and other executives who have joined the show to
give us their insight. I feel like we really have
a deeper appreciation for the challenges that organizations face and
(28:20):
some of the technological solutions that enable those organizations to
meet and conquer those challenges. If you enjoyed this episode,
I highly recommend looking back over the past season for
other conversations with thought leaders and tech pioneers. I'm Jonathan
Strickland at T Mobile. For business, unconventional thinking means we
(28:46):
see things differently so you can focus on what matters most.
That's why we've built America's largest, fastest five GEN network
while remaining a partner who delivers exceptional customer support and
five G included in every plan so you get it all.
Unconventional thinking is better for business. Fastest five G based
on average overall combined five G speeds according to Open
Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October twenty one.
(29:09):
See five D device coverage and access details at T
mobile Dot com
Every one of our weapons system platforms is now collecting
vast volumes of data, so modernizing our networks and going
wireless is a top priority for us this year. We
actually just release the Army's Unified Network Plan, and there's
a few important pieces in that. One is leveraging five
G to the greatest extent possible. We have a number
of pilots underway at some of our basis to look
(00:23):
at how we can use five G for augmented reality
and virtual reality, as well as things like autonomous driving
and so on. Welcome to the restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
I've spent more than a decade really learning about technology,
what makes it tick, and then describing and explaining that
(00:44):
to my audience. But it's the conversations with the world's
most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the intersection of technology
and business, that fascinate me the most. In partnership with
T Mobile for Business, I explore the unique set of
challenges that c t o s and see iOS and
other tech executives face from advancements in cloud and edge computing,
(01:05):
software as a service, internet of things, and of course
five G. We are often left wondering how the leading
minds and business continue to thrive. Let's find out. Our
guest today is Dr Rajayer see i Oh for the
United States Army. Dr Iyer has a long career in
(01:26):
technology and in multiple roles before he accepted the job
as c i O of the U. S. Army. He
and his department are hard at work on a massive
task modernizing the United States Army, with a goal of
reaching an interim operational capacity by twenty eight I always
enjoy speaking with my guests on this show, and I
(01:49):
always respect the challenges they face, But in this case,
we were talking about an entirely different level of stakes.
It was clear to me that Dr Iyer keeps in
mind the safety of the United States, It's citizens, those
serving in the military, and our allies around the world.
That's a level of responsibility that is quite frankly difficult
(02:11):
for me to get my mind around. I sat down
with Dr Iyer to talk about his role, the challenges
the U. S. Army faces, and how the information landscape
has changed dramatically. But first I wanted to know a
little bit about flight simulators. Dr Iyer, thank you so
much for joining us on the restless ones. This is
(02:33):
a real pleasure. Oh, thank you for the opportunity. My pleasure. Well,
I always like to to start off every episode getting
to know my guest a bit more, and I happened
to have seen that early on in your career, you
worked in some systems that included flight simulators, so I
was just curious, how how do you think flight simulators
(02:55):
have evolved. I'm constantly amazed by them. Oh, isn't it.
I mean, you know, the kind of flight simulators we
built thirty years ago, with the kind of technology we had,
there is nothing in comparison to what we have on
our cell phones today. I mean, I remember I had
to write assembly language programming using parallel processing chips to
(03:17):
do some very basic graphics for F sixteen cockpit displays,
and you can get far more sophisticated graphics today on
just on your cell phones. So clearly technology has come
a long way. And that's just one perfect example. Yeah.
I think of that as almost like a microcosm of
how technology has advanced dramatically over the last few decades,
(03:39):
where we've seen this explosion in data in all aspects
of our lives, including in flight simulators. We have the
machines capable of processing the information and making meaningful outcomes.
And I suspect that's going to be a big part
of our conversation today, particularly when it comes to the
efforts of of creating a modernized army. But before I
(04:00):
get into that, uh, I know that a lot of
your career has also been involved in various tech leadership
roles within the U. S. Army. How did you first
start working for the army. Yeah, it all began in
early two thousands. I had co founded a high tech
startup company right out of college, did that for ten years,
threw that to a successful company, and it was really
(04:22):
looking for something new and different to do. And after
nine eleven happened and I looked at you know, as
we got into the Global War on Terror, there was
a huge technology deficit, you know, in the United States
Army as you probably are tracking the decade before that
for that for US in the United States, you know,
it was was an arrow of peace. It was post
(04:42):
Cold War, and you know, it was very clear that
the U. S. Military had kind of dwindled in terms
of its technology strength. And so when we went to
war in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early two thousand's,
it was very clear that, you know, we were already
challenged technologically, So it was just that kind of call
to duty. I wanted to do something to return what
(05:04):
this nation had done for me as a as a
first generation immigrant, and I thought was my duty to
come serve and I did that as a as an
army civilian starting in two thousand two. See and that,
to me is just an amazing story about your character
to go from start up in the private space and
then dedicate so much of your professional career towards helping
(05:26):
in various aspects in the army. I want to learn
more about how you became the first civilian CIO of
the U. S. Army. How did that actually come to pass.
I actually, you know, was a partner that wanted the
big four consulting firms and actively engaged in the defense
sector and working with the army quite a bit from
the outside and out of the blue. One day I
(05:49):
got a call from the Pentagon asking if I was
available to come talk to them, and I said, well,
what was it about? And they said, well, you know
you've been searched in for you know, c I o
to come in from industry. It's a brand new position.
We've not had that position before. And my first reaction was,
(06:09):
I don't think I'm the guy. You know, it's a
really complex position. The challenges are tremendous. And for one,
for for somebody who who had been in the Army
for the ten you know, for ten years before that,
I knew what some of those challenges were. And I
kept asking them, are you really sure you know this
is this is what you want, because you know, you
could find a whole bunch of other people that were
(06:30):
really qualified to do this. But before I knew it,
you know, one discussion led to another, and as I
heard more about the challenges that the Army was having,
it really took me back, you know, twenty years so
the first time, you know, when I came to work
for the Army, and this time around, the challenges were
very different. Um, you know, after twenty years of fighting
you know, in the Middle East. Here again we were,
(06:53):
you know, at at a pivotal time when it comes
to the nation security, where you know, we have seen
the right seeing powers of China and Russia and and
the Army falling, starting to fall back technologically. And as
I heard more about the sense of urgency and what
was in front of us, and it was very clear
to me that you know, this was again a call
(07:14):
to duty and it's an honor and a privilege to
be the Armies for c I O. But it's you know,
I'm coming in at a time when you know, we
got some big challenges in terms of keeping our nations safe.
So how do you describe what it is you do
in a way that can make sense to like the
average person. Yeah, So at the end of the day,
you know, all things digital fall under my oversight. So
(07:36):
I reported the Secretary of the Army, and the way
the Army and the DUODE structured is that the secretariat
side of the military establishes policy, the strategy, and it's
responsible for the you know, overall oversight for all of
the implementation. And so when it comes to information technology,
information management, cybersecurity and all things digital transformation, that is
(08:02):
basically my responsibility. Given how large the Army is, it
always amazes me for somebody coming in from the private sector,
look at how big we are, one point four million soldiers,
civilians and contractors worldwide, and the mission being executed by
multiple commands and theaters it's a scale and complexity that's
unheard of even in any fortunate Hunt company. And so,
(08:25):
you know, orchestrating the technology for this vast enterprise through
a budget of sixteen billion dollars annually means that it's
really important that we understand what requirements are, establishing the
priorities and ensuring alignment of that vision, you know, to
the strategic comparatives. So that is the role of the
c I oh, it is it is. I see myself
(08:45):
as being front and center to how the Army is
modernizing for the future. And it is not a back
office function. It is not one where you know, we're
asked to go in and fix people's laptops. It is
one where we have really put technologgy front and center
to how the Army is going to operate in future
and fight in wind wars. You've touched on the scale,
(09:05):
I mean, obviously, it's it's huge and beyond, like you said,
beyond what the fortune five hungry companies typically see. How
can you give us an idea about the scale of
your department in particular. Yeah, so when it comes to
the digital workforce, which is you know what I'm responsible for,
there were about seventy two employees. That's uh, military, civilians,
(09:26):
and contractors. Like I said, we have a budget of
about sixteen billion dollars annually. I think that it's the
largest of all of the services in the in the
Department of Defense, and it's certainly larger than any government
agency that we can track. So it's a it's a
massive budget. But more importantly, you know, it is the size,
(09:48):
scale and complexity of the worldwide mission. And what I
tell people is that, you know, although you might see
the Army, you know, fighting wars overseas, we also have
a mission at home and that's through the National Guarden Reserves.
Last year, you know, not only very responsible for you know,
efforts in Southwest Asia and supporting you know, the retrograde
(10:10):
and the operations back from Afghanistan and supporting the the
evacuation of refugees, but at the homeland, you know, we
were responsible for fighting wildfires on the West coast, to
hurricanes in the south, to the COVID you know, vaccination effort,
and to all the civil undreust that we had through
Black Lives Matter to all the way to what happened
(10:33):
on post elections. So so as you can see, the
mission is wide, it is global in nature, and every
aspect of our operation has an information technology element associated
with it because at the end of the day, that's
how we command and control our our force. And if
you do not have the right technology to command and control,
(10:53):
then you know, operationally we're not effective. Well, Dryer, I
think it would be great for us to kind of
segue and talk a little bit more about your your
leadership role and strategy over at U S. Army. One
of the things I was really curious about because we
have talked to a lot of ce I O S
and c T O S in uh In. In private business,
(11:14):
one of the things that is often challenging is getting
buy in from various stakeholders. I imagine with the organization
of the U. S. Army it's a very different approach.
So what sort of what is sort of the situation
when you need to try and get buy in from
various parties to support a specific initiative. Absolutely so, I
(11:38):
literally spend ninety percent of my time, you know, in
terms of achieving that kind of alignment to vision, the
strategic vision and I and I use a few techniques.
One is it's absolutely important that we set the vision,
the clarity of the mission, and then to be able
to communicate that across the workforce. And if you've been
able to do that, that's the first step in the process,
(12:00):
because if you have if you don't have clarity of
what you're doing and you're not able to communicate that
to all the stakeholders, then your very first step of
the process is broke. The second is making sure that
we achieve unity of effort. And again, you know, as
the Army c I OH, I always tell people that
you know the eye and the C I O stands
for inspiration. So I'm here to inspire you know, the
(12:22):
rest of the Army to do the right things. There's
no way, given the scale and complexity of the mission,
that we can centralize and do everything from my office.
So I am here to enable that innovation and transformation
across the army. It truly has to be democratized. So
so I'm all in favor of the Army commands worldwide
(12:43):
innovating and implementing and modernizing their their technology. But as
long as they do that in alignment with our strategy,
and we have good alignment and good unity of efforts,
so that we're not stepping on each other's toes and
we don't have duplication of effort. I think we have
a good model for how we can actually democratize this
across the Army. And then finally, you know, we always
(13:05):
have to bring compliance into play because you know, yes,
we want to make sure v A G We let
everybody do the right things, but at the end of
the day, we also want to make sure that we
have the oversight and compliance to make sure that people
are following the directors and policies that we've put in
place and that they are indeed working towards the in
state objectives and the outcomes that we're looking for. One
(13:27):
of the things we like to talk about a lot
on the show, are you know the ways that wireless
connectivity in particular have really impacted business and operations. How
is the development of high speed wireless connectivity changed how
the Army operates in the field if it if it
has in fact, and what other technologies that you rely
(13:47):
upon depend upon that kind of uh connectivity. Oh so,
when we operate in the field in theater, we're often
not often, we're always constrained by bandwidth and es. Actually,
you know, if you look at in the early days
when we were in Southwest Asia and Afghanistan. You know,
over the last twenty years now, we've actually built some
(14:08):
pretty sophisticated networks there that we left behind. But as
we move into new theaters, like you know in the
South Pacific, you know, Eastern Europe and so on, and
in Africa, we're always challenged in terms of having connectivity
to support our operations, and so we have relied quite
a bit on you know, military sat com that is
hard to get, is heavily constrained. Every one of our
(14:30):
weapons system platforms is now collecting vast volumes of data,
and if we're not able to take advantage of that
data send it back, you know, where we need that
data to be processed for decision making, and the network
and the bandwidth has become our limiting factor, then we're
not able to truly take advantage of data. So modernizing
our networks and going wireless is a top priority for us.
(14:53):
This year, we actually just released the Army's Unified Network Plan,
and that is how we're going to modernize the network.
And there's a few important pieces in that. One is
leveraging five G to the greatest extent possible. We have
a number of pilots underway at some of our bases
to look at how we can use five G for
augmented reality and virtual reality as well as things like
(15:14):
autonomous driving and so on. We're looking at private five
G on the tactical side, and one of the things
that I'm I would really like to get rid of
is all of their miles and miles of cabling. You know,
when you go to a forward talk or a FOB,
which you will find is miles and miles of cabling,
and and it's just you know, that approach is not expeditionary.
(15:34):
It doesn't give us the agility that we need to
move fast and and wireless technologies are here now, they
are secure, and we're starting to implement them at scale
across the Army. It's the same with WiFi across our installations.
We have as we start to modernize each of our installations,
we are putting in place now WiFi routers instead of
(15:55):
the traditional wired cabling that that we have seen in
our installations. And finally, we're starting to work with commercial
satcom providers like SpaceX and so that we can start
to take advantage of the connectivity and resiliency that comes
from satellite communications in parts of the world where we've
had very poor connectivity or poor access. At T Mobile
(16:19):
for Business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so
you can focus on what matters most. Where some see
another small town, we see businesses in need of connectivity,
so we built the largest five G network to cover cities, towns,
and the most interstate miles in between. Where some see
a caller in a queue, we see an opportunity for
our experts to provide solutions without transfers. Where some see
(16:42):
another virtual meeting, we see five G enabling wireless real
time translations almost anywhere you do business. Our unique approach
built America's largest, fastest five G network and also delivers
exceptional customer support and five G included in every plan,
so you get it all out trade offs. Unconventional thinking
is better for business. T Mobile for Business fastest five
(17:06):
G based on average overall combined five G speeds according
to Open Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October.
See five D device coverage and access details at to
mobile dot com. Next. I really wanted to dig down
and talk to Dr Iyer about information technology and how
(17:28):
the U. S. Army will achieve modernization, including through partnering
with the private sector. So I treat the private sector
and the software industry on the innovation that comes from
there as key partners on this journey. They are not
only partners, but I would say stakeholders as well. And
and so, given how we are now starting to adopt
(17:49):
technology in everything we do, it's absolutely critical that the
private sector understands our vision and and where we're headed.
We're now in this partnership more of us looking at
bringing them in early, you know, as as we developed requirements,
and then getting into prototyping and experimentation early. So one
(18:10):
of the premier events that the Army has established for
the last couple of years is called Project Convergence. And
and this is our effort to integrate a lot of
new technologies rapidly and then experimenting them, you know, in
an operational environment. So so two weeks back, you know,
we were at Humor in the desert where we brought
in literally a hundred ten new technologies over the you know,
(18:33):
over the last seven weeks, and we integrated them rapidly,
put them to test, and then we actually conducted live
fire experiments in in you know, in in the desert,
and all of that would not have possible if not
for the partnership that we had with industry. And and
this includes both traditional difference contractors as well as non
traditional contractors. You know that companies that have never worked
(18:56):
with the d D before but had some great technologies
that we had not taken advantage of. So one of
the things I do tell industry is, you know, even
as we do that, one of the requirements that we're
going to put on industry is, you know, try to
be open with your architectures, right. You know, when your industry,
you know, you want to obviously you want to drive
your revenue, but in this mission space that we're in,
(19:18):
it is all about interoperability. We've got to make sure
that the technologies and the architectures work when we can
put them together. And if you do not do that,
and you you're closed with your technology, then it's going
to be harder for us to you know, bring in
and adopt the innovation that you may have you may
have built. I had heard that Dr Eyer's modernization strategies
(19:39):
included leveraging some emerging technologies and wanted to learn more
about them and how he envisions the army using tech
like machine learning in the future. We have committed that,
you know, when we fight in future, it's going to
be in all domains, and that is land, air, ce space,
and cyberspace. So what this has done is it's taken
(20:00):
us from you know, operationally working at the brigade combat
team level two big you know, core division level fights
you know, in a in a large theater, right, and
so the scale and complexity of the future fight is
very different from you know, what we were fighting against
ices and and so when we have to fight like
(20:20):
that in future, not only do we have to interoperate
across those five domains, but it's also about how we're
able to very closely integrate and interoperate with our coalition
and allied nation partners. So that is the imperative. That's
how we're going to fight in future. Now, when you
start peeling the onion on that in terms of what
we need to do, it's all about how we're going
(20:42):
to achieve command and control, um, you know, in the
space across all domains. And when you look at you know,
how we empower commanders with decision making it comes down
to data, right, So they again it comes down to data,
is how much data can we give them and how
quickly can we get them the data and how quickly
(21:02):
can we rapidly process that data To be able to
enable the commander with multiple options, but to be able
to provide those that, you know, multiple options in that
decision space means that we're going to have to process
large volumes of data in almost near real time and
at a speed of war that we have you know,
(21:24):
in the past, not heard of. Right. So remember, not
only is the US investing in hypersonics, our near peer
adversaries are also investing in hypersonics. Right, So we're now
looking at missiles coming to us anywhere from you know,
five to eighteen times the speed of sound. And so
so when you operate in that kind of threat environment,
(21:44):
you no longer have the luxury of saying, hey, I
got hours to day's to figure out, you know, how
I'm going to process all this data and come up
with the courses of action. This is where you know,
artificial intelligence and machine learning come into play, because what
we have found is at when you have such large
volumes of data as great as our analysts are, and
(22:05):
and our soldiers are. You know, we're going to have
to argument that automated you know, decision making through AI
and machine learning and so so. So much of the
technology that we're building now into our weapons system platforms
is all about, you know, how do we process large
volumes of data coming from sensors and how do we
rapidly move that at you know, across multiple achealance and
(22:28):
make that available for command and control. I imagine a
big part of that must be creating the appropriate cloud
infrastructure in order to be able to share information rapidly
across the entire world. So is that something that your
department is looking at as well? Oh, we absolutely are
already in it. Right. So, over the last eighteen months,
(22:50):
we have actually built out our cloud infrastructure both for
unclassified and classified workloads, and so this year we're actually
starting to operationalize that by looking at, you know, how
do we start to build out those you know, mission
threads and use cases where you know, we can leverage
the compute and the storage it's available in the cloud
(23:13):
to process these large volumes of data and then the
transport that's needed from the cloud back to the tactical edge.
So it's really as leave frogging into the future with
these newer technologies rather than continue to procure and implement
legacy infrastructure. I'm boggled by the complexity of this. I mean,
one of the things that obviously every organization has to
(23:37):
look into is when you're applying artificial intelligence and machine learning,
to make sure that the models, uh don't have unintended
biases applied to them where they're finding quote unquote meaning
in data where there might just be noise and no signal,
and obviously in the realms we're talking about that sort
of thing is absolutely critical to make certain that that
(23:59):
in for nation and that the analysis of that information
is as accurate as we can possibly make it before
sending it back on for it to be part of
some decision making process, whether it's automated or a person's
behind it. Like I said, you know, this is not
a science experiment for us anymore. This is not a
nice to have. This is not a you know, typical
(24:20):
you know, science and technology initiative type effort. Yeah. I mean,
we we know that these technologies are here, they're real,
and we know our adversaries are already starting to use them.
And so I would say we're somewhat late to the game,
but we have made tremendous progress over the last twelve
to eighteen months, and the experimentation you know that we're
(24:42):
doing through Project Convergence, that and some of the exercises
and Pacific in Europe are starting to show that you
know that we we can indeed rapidly adopt these technologies
and they are an enabler. We will never rely on
technologies to automate any human decisions, but the volume of
data and the speed at which we needed cannot be
(25:02):
accomplished without such an automation. Today, of course, I couldn't
let Dr Iyer go without asking him one more thing,
dr Ira, I'm curious what gets you out of bed
in the morning, what inspires you to go in for
a day of work. So first, it's the urgency of
the change that we need to make. So we don't
(25:23):
have a lot of time. The Army has committed to
establishing a multi domain capable force by twenty eight and
we're now, you know, moving into two. We have an
aggressive plan of things that we've got to get done,
and there's a tremendous amount of work that's being done,
but it's it has to happen at a pace at
which the army and and the bureaucracy is not used
(25:45):
to in the past, and so breaking those barriers means
that you know, we're going to have to take some
very non traditional approaches to doing some things. So it
is that sense of urgency that keeps me going. The
second is the commitment and the brilliance of our p people.
And when I say our people, that's you know, the
the army workforce, but also all of the people that
(26:05):
are working with us from the outside. It's important to
make sure that you know, in this collaborative approach that
we're taking that they feel the same sense of urgency
that I do. But I see the same passion in
many of them, and their passion to keep our nation
safe is one that keeps me going every day. Dr.
I right. I couldn't ask for a better and more
(26:28):
inspiring answer to that question. And I am so appreciative
of your time. Thank you again for joining us on
the Restless Ones. Thank you for the opportunity to share
some of my thoughts. Dr. I are really drove home
that for the U. S. Army to do its job,
the United States must invest in not just catching up,
but also establishing a foundation that will allow for continued
(26:50):
evolution and rapid development of tech. It's not sufficient to
throw money in tech at a problem and then dust
your hands and walk away. Adversaries around the world will
continue to look for vulnerabilities, and the best way to
head them off is to continue to innovate. But that's
a job that's easier said than done. More often than not,
(27:12):
I think we assume huge organizations like the U. S.
Army are ill suited for the rapid development and deployment
of technologies and processes. I know I have made the
mistake of assuming the focus has always been on the
weapons in tech that soldiers rely upon on the front lines.
But the truth is that the tech stretches far beyond
(27:34):
the front lines and requires making some pretty radical changes
in a relatively short amount of time. I believe dr
Ayer's vision is one that puts us on the right track.
I want to thank dr Iyer once again for coming
on the show and sharing his valuable time with me.
I feel I have a much deeper appreciation for the
challenges we face as a nation, and I feel that
(27:56):
many of his insights apply well beyond the US Army.
Thank you for listening to the Restless Ones. This episode
caps off our second season. I want to thank all
of the c t o s and c I O
s and other executives who have joined the show to
give us their insight. I feel like we really have
a deeper appreciation for the challenges that organizations face and
(28:20):
some of the technological solutions that enable those organizations to
meet and conquer those challenges. If you enjoyed this episode,
I highly recommend looking back over the past season for
other conversations with thought leaders and tech pioneers. I'm Jonathan
Strickland at T Mobile. For business, unconventional thinking means we
(28:46):
see things differently so you can focus on what matters most.
That's why we've built America's largest, fastest five GEN network
while remaining a partner who delivers exceptional customer support and
five G included in every plan so you get it all.
Unconventional thinking is better for business. Fastest five G based
on average overall combined five G speeds according to Open
Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October twenty one.
(29:09):
See five D device coverage and access details at T
mobile Dot com
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