What the Pentagon Needs and Doesn’t Need From Industry

Military leaders often note the critical role played by the private industry in meeting mission requirements and warfighter needs. That was no different at the 2025 Intelligence & National Security Summit, when Pentagon representatives took to the stage to speak directly to industry. While deeply focused on new technology and tools necessary for the future fight, one leader also challenged contractors with a soldiers-first approach.

U.S. Army

“We, under the direction of [U.S. Army Gen. Randy George], are laser focused on soldiers being part of the design process from the beginning,” said Andrew Evans, director at the U.S Army Strategy & Transformation Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2.

Evans also outlined the immense possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Experts estimate a total of 180 billion terabytes of data in the world, he began. “That’s a number that’s too big for us to rationalize, but what you can rationalize is your Netflix account … there’s 200 terabytes of data on Netflix,” Evans pointed out.

For such vast amounts of data, AI is imperative, he stressed. “Not all of that data is going to be of military value, but something in that will, and finding that faster than the adversary finds that may mean your soldiers come home.”

Evans also spoke on the hyper focus Lt. Gen. Anthony Reynolds Hale has on rapidly delivering AI capabilities to the edge.

“Sometimes the more advanced AI capabilities require more advanced compute and storage and data duration and cleaning of things that often happen in big data centers,” Evans added. “We, as a land component, along with our Marines in particular, know we’re going to be operating at some horrible places where we probably will not have comms [communications] that we need, so we have to be able to integrate AI capabilities that don’t depend on all that compute and storage.”

Another focus area Evans highlighted was modular, open system architecture.

“One thing that is true about intelligence is that what you thought was going to happen may happen, but something else usually happens as well,” he said. As the world changes, adaptability is paramount, which Evans stated is something industry should keep in mind.

Evans also encouraged industry to partake in further partnerships and collaboration.

“Don’t burn down the market in search of your own market share,” he said. “The market here is having a nation for the next 250 years; that is our job.”

Evans’ last point was an emphasis on the right to repair. “We cannot outsource our lethality to contractors,” he stated.

Sharing an example, Evans noted an airplane currently awaiting its repair by a contractor.

“It is down on a ramp today waiting on a wrench. There [are] only two wrenches in the world, and they can only be turned by a contractor that is unwilling to come out to where this airplane is or on their schedule,” he said. “We have to have the right to repair our own things, and so we are going to be focused on that moving forward.”

U.S. Air Force

For Lt. Gen. Max Pearson, ensuring his team has the right digital infrastructure to enable integration and infusion of advanced technologies is a key focus.

Pearson currently serves as the deputy chief of staff for intelligence for the U.S. Air Force.

“I see digital infrastructure a little bit like trust … I don’t see us surging it,” he said. “What I’m talking about is having the digital infrastructure pervasive, not just in our warfighting echelons and connecting, but also having it be part of the habit pattern of our workforce and our culture.”

The digital infrastructure will not only empower the workforce but allow for the deployment of AI and machine learning capabilities, Pearson explained.

“My ask to industry would simply be that as we move forward doing that, there’s no doubt in my mind we are not going to be able to have or sustain the sort of stove-piped IT [information technology] component in our integrated digital stack. We have to integrate that, and I know that’s going to pose challenges for how we work with industry to do that, but I really believe that’s what we’ve got to do moving forward,” he concluded.

U.S. Marine Corps

Also on stage was Lt. Gen. Jerry Carter, who is celebrating 40 years of service to the U.S. Marine Corps. Carter is currently the deputy commandant for information. His ask of industry began with assured command and control.

“It is about the architecture,” he said. “How do you ensure that the commanders can trust the architecture and get information, those orders to the commanders forward on the battlefield? That’s a tough and daunting task.”

The next on his list was battlespace awareness for informed and critical decision-making.

Carter additionally spoke on his focus on closing the kill web, much of which has to do with space-based capabilities.

“Imagine a day without space,” he said. “The space-based capabilities that now are super important to us when it comes to PNT [positioning, navigation and timing], the GPS to ensure that we get there, it’s closing the kill web with that piece, and how do you survive in a very contested environment.”

Therefore, modernization all the way to the tactical edge is key, he underlined.

Finally, Carter spoke on the challenges of the current acquisition programs. When it comes to software, he said, industry must prioritize security by design. “As you continued to up your game and help the warfighter, we ask you to do it in a safe and secure way."

U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy’s deputy director of naval intelligence, Steven Parode, also shared his thoughts, starting with a discussion on spectrum.

“I mean literally from AC to X-rays. I do not mean a narrow, little, tiny band that’s very comfortable between two and 32 megahertz. I mean the whole spectrum,” he said, highlighting the area of challenge.

“We’re particularly challenged when we start talking about terahertz and above, and we have some real significant challenges below about 40 hertz,” he added.

Parode also spoke on the spectrum of sound. “I’m telling you right now, we are in a world that is emerging very swiftly where ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] needs to be able to count everything from seismic activity to ultrasonic impacts upon the atmosphere that generate visible effects. All of those things are part of my concern for ISR technology.”

The Navy will operate under the distributed maritime operations, he said. “That keeps our force distributed and lethal in a way that the old task group-centric Navy created an easily solved problem for targeting an adversary.”

The concept has created an ISR volume at an average of 50 million cubic kilometers, Parode told the audience, which is only a portion of the data the force must deal with.

“If you’re thinking about big data, crunching big data, saving me from having to do that on an aircraft carrier, destroyer, submarine, we need that help,” he asked of industry.

Finally, Parode spoke on meeting the U.S. president’s goal of revitalizing the American shipbuilding industry—a task that requires a modular and scalable approach. He went on to share an anecdote from a recent display decision tool demonstration.

“It was brought to me on a laptop to make it easy so that I could sit down in front of a laptop and learn about these cool tools, which I love. They’re really exciting, they’re really cool,” he said. The bad news was that the tools were incompatible with the U.S. Naval Intelligence information baseline.

“I was going to have to upgrade that entire baseline because the operational power in that laptop far exceeded what’s available to me in our ships. That’s now scalable,” Parode noted. “I really want to take advantage of great ideas and software, but you have to help me understand how I can use your software in my limited hardware environment, because I don’t have the opportunity to fully rescale hardware across the United States Naval Intelligence enterprise at the drop of a hat.”

U.S. Space Force

Rounding up the discussion was Brig. Gen. Brian Sidari, who also spoke on his need for software. Scalability is key, he stressed.

“I don’t want to buy a data center … I want to connect into a data center,” he said. “I want to make sure when the Army deploys [or] the Marines are conducting expeditionary operations, or the carrier is going out there, you get an update by the proliferated constellations, you can get a dump of the authoritative databases, and you have it, and we accept that because we’ve given the boundaries. That’s what we need help on.”

The 2025 Intelligence & National Security Summit is organized by AFCEA International and INSA. SIGNAL Media is the official media of AFCEA International.