DOD CIO Kirsten J. Davies outlines four‑pillar plan to modernize Defense IT and cybersecurity

Kirsten J. Davies, the Department of Defense chief information officer, told a House Armed Services subcommittee that modernizing the department’s information technology is central to military readiness and that she will pursue a four‑pillar strategy to do so.

In testimony before the subcommittee, Davies said the strategy centers on enduring terrestrial fiber and advanced satellite connectivity, agile digital capabilities and cloud adoption, a risk‑based cybersecurity posture including zero trust, and expanded skills and partnerships. "Our focus is to enable data supremacy and decision superiority," she said, adding that the effort will "eliminate inefficient spending, reduce technical debt, accelerate modernization, drive consistent and up leveled cybersecurity, and unleash data and innovation from the core to the edge." (Kirsten J. Davies, chief information officer, Department of Defense.)

Davies described infrastructure and program priorities that will support those pillars: continued network modernization and data‑center work, work on the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) and enterprise cloud adoption, and efforts to harden operational technology. She said DOD is moving away from "checklist driven compliance toward a unified holistic risk based approach" and emphasized continuous monitoring and automation as key tools.

On workforce, Davies said the department is expanding partnerships with academia and industry to fill cyber roles. "To date, we have, I believe over a 170 scholarships," she said, and described partnerships "with over 450 academic institutions" and a planned rotation/internship program intended to upskill personnel.

The CIO also highlighted that commercial 5G has been broadly deployed on installations, noting the department is "currently at, 88% of US military installations possessing commercial 5G infrastructure in at least 1" area and that DOD is exploring dynamic, secure spectrum sharing approaches.

Davies said parts of cryptography and sensitive operational performance will be addressed in the classified portion of the hearing, but she reiterated that post‑quantum cryptography targets are a cross‑government priority.

The open session concluded with Davies answering lawmakers’ questions about authority‑to‑operate (ATO) timelines, CMMC implementation, and pilot programs such as digital twins; members were invited to submit additional questions for the record and the committee reconvened in a classified setting for sensitive topics.