3-Star General: Tomorrow’s Troops Need Controversial JEDI Cloud
By Patrick Tucker Technology Editor Read bio
Days after the new SecDef put a hold on the massive cloud program, two Pentagon leaders went on the record to defend it.
On Friday, Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, who runs the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, and Defense Department CIO Dana Deasy added several supporting details to the ones offered last week by anonymous former Pentagon officials to Defense One and Nextgov. The officials’ willingness to go on the record shows how important they believe the pending contract is to current and future U.S. military operations.
Dubbed the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, program, the 10-year, $10-billion networking contract is intended to link all of the military’s service branches and provide cloud capabilities to operators in combat as well as the commanders at headquarters behind them. Pentagon officials aimed to award it this month to finalists Amazon Web Services or Microsoft — until Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared his intention to review the program on Aug. 1.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/08/3-star-general-tomorrows-troops-need-controversial-jedi-cloud/159088/
