“We have got to do acquisition at the speed of operational relevance.” With that statement at FMA Industry Day, Michael Clark, Director of Acquisition and Technology for USCYBERCOM, encapsulated a prime challenge facing cyber security agencies at Fort Meade.
Clark, along with Tammy Griffith, Deputy Senior Acquisition Executive at NSA, and Douglas Packard, Director of Procurement Directorate at DISA, stressed that cyber threats to the U.S. are continuously growing and rapidly evolving. In response, the organizations are pursuing increasingly agile, efficient and impactful ways of partnering with industry.
Some contracting levels are increasing dramatically; CYBERCOM’s acquisition budget will jump from $750 million currently to $3.5 billion in 2025. DISA, NSA and CYBERCOM are all expanding their outreach to small businesses, requesting more feedback on acquisition opportunities and seeking new ways to collaborate with what they see as a disturbingly shrinking cyber industrial base. They are also preparing for profound, upcoming changes in government operations, including the implementation of the zero trust environment protocol, creation of a Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture around 2025 and the standup of the Joint Cyber Intelligence Center in 2027 to improve cyber warriors abilities to effectively work across agencies and with coalition partners.
