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USPACOM J6 Seeks Resilient Infrastructure Solutions From Industry

The U.S. Pacific Command cyber director says resilient networks are a must and encourages commercial solutions.

Gen. Smith speaks at AFCEA Tech-Net Indo-Pacific in fireside chat with industry. Credit: Artistic Mindz Photography

Brig. Gen. Michael L. Smith, C4/Cyber director, J6, U.S. Pacific Command, speaks at TechNet Indo-Pacific 2026 in a fireside chat with industry. Credit: Artistic Mindz Photography

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command J6 Directorate serves as the Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Cyber (C4/Cyber) board. The directorate oversees all communications, networking and cyber operations across the Indo-Pacific. Brig. Gen. Michael L. Smith, C4/Cyber director, J6, U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM), spoke at TechNet Indo-Pacific 2026 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Smith said acquisition priorities include building resilient technology and maturing capabilities.

Adversaries outnumber cybersecurity personnel 200 to 1, according to Smith. With the growth of frontier artificial intelligence (AI), adversaries are able to generate techniques and attack systems.

Priorities reflect a rapidly changing technological environment and a need to adapt quickly. For example, for cyber systems to remain up to date, lines of code must consistently be written. These lines are specifically designed to close security holes that have been identified. However, USPACOM suffers from a threatening delay in this process, Smith said.

“Patching is another issue. There's automated remediation as part of some of those frontier models, but the patching is still a vendor-specific thing. So, some of the products we have, when a vulnerability has been identified by a frontier AI model, despite being a tier one cybersecurity program global leader, some of those patches have taken five to eight weeks to [develop.] So, that is five to eight weeks of complete vulnerability, complete ability for an adversary to deny and degrade that network,” Smith explained.

To support warfighting capabilities, Smith highlighted a need for resilient network infrastructures. This is important to focus on as USPACOM priorities rest in deterrence through resilient C4 capabilities. When it comes to making this infrastructure a reality, the command is eagerly seeking to diversify infrastructure through commercial solutions, he said.

“We don't have time to pilot. If you have a capability that is almost an immediate early adopter, we will fund it and we will get it into the systems,” Smith said. “Send us your products, send us your brochures, coordinate meetings and updates.

TechNet Indo-Pacific is co-sponsored by AFCEA International and AFCEA Hawaii. SIGNAL Media is the official media of AFCEA International.