The adoption of leading edge technologies by the Army’s and the United States’ near-peer adversaries, combined with the rapid pace of change in technology, is creating new and complex challenges for how the Army operates and maintains overmatch across all domains – land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. As the Army responds to the growing need for digital technologies through Army modernization programs, the cybersecurity attack surface area is growing exponentially, and the dynamic threat environment requires the Army to make fundamental changes to address security in all phases of the lifecycle to ensure the Army is poised for defensive and offensive cyber operations. The Army must adapt a data-driven mindset and embrace digital transformation to successfully respond to the threat of great power competition and win decisively in a Large Scale Combat Operations through MDO.

The Army Modernization Strategy identifies digital transformation as the means to modernize the Army to achieve Waypoint 2028 and Aimpoint 2035. Digital transformation represents a shift in operations and culture that fundamentally changes how an organization delivers value through the adoption of advanced technologies such as cloud, data and artificial intelligence (AI). Digital transformation is driven through innovation and new business and operating models, powered by a digital workforce that is agile, adaptive, and tech-savvy. Digital transformation is an enabler for Army readiness and reform and serves as a catalyst to revitalize and establish the Army’s digital workforce of the future. The Army must keep pace with the rapid change in technology, adopt modern best practices, and avoid any delays from bureaucratic institutional processes. The Army must make bold investments in transformative digital technologies, reform its institutional processes, and build its workforce into one with the training and experience to execute in increasingly complex operational environments with the technological innovation that places the right data in decision makers’ hands quicker.