The U.S. Defense Department is laying the groundwork to expand a pilot program started in 2023 to provide more data processing capabilities to military units operating outside of the U.S., according to a senior official in the Pentagon’s Chief Information Office.

As combatant commands around the globe integrate more sensors and uncrewed systems, there’s a growing need for computing and storage capabilities. The Joint Operational Edge, or JOE, cloud initiative aims to provide commanders with the computing capabilities they need to crunch the swaths of data those sensors are gathering and identify key intelligence insights.

In just over a year, the department has established JOE nodes in Japan, Hawaii and Guam, as well as several sites in Europe and Africa. Rob Vietmeyer, chief software officer for the DOD CIO, said the program is still in its infancy, but the Pentagon hopes to quickly expand the most needed capabilities in the coming years.

“We’re working with the intelligence community, Joint Staff and combatant commands to build out these capabilities with our commercial partners,” he said during a panel at the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Research and Development Summit in McLean, Virginia.

Vietmeyer told Defense News on the sidelines of the conference the department’s current focus is on ensuring the capabilities it delivers through JOE are what combatant commands need and can use today. The vision is for JOE to be flexible and grow as needed based on demand. Over the next few years, the department plans to expand the number of nodes from the handful it operates today to around 20.

“We don’t want to build out more infrastructure than what we can take advantage of,” he said. “We’re trying to keep this as an agile program and continue to build out based on where we’re adding real value.”

Part of JOE’s initial work has been to get these capabilities into the hands of users in the field — often referenced as “the edge” in military parlance — so they can get a feel for how it works and could potentially benefit operations, Vietmeyer said.

Two areas where the program is seeing particular demand from users in the field are AI and graphics processing unit, or GPU, tools. A GPU is a circuit that processes images and other graphics.

Along with building out the necessary infrastructure, the JOE team — which includes partners in the Defense Information Systems Agency and U.S. Special Operations Command — is developing policies and working with vendors to craft procurement strategies for the effort. While the project is currently funded as an enterprise effort, Vietmeyer said it will eventually transition, at least in part, to a fee-for-service approach.

Managing supply chain risk

Supply chain security and risk management are key issues for the Defense Department as it builds out its edge computing architecture.

Leigh Method, currently performing the duties of deputy assistant secretary of defense for sustainment, said DOD has several initiatives to mitigate risk to its supply chain. Speaking alongside Vietmeyer at the R&D Summit, she highlighted the creation of a Supply Chain Risk Mitigation Integration Center.

Currently, the organization has just one employee, but the department intends for the center to grow over the next few years and look across the department to better understand and prioritize risk and develop strategies for reducing it.

Method also pointed to an initiative called Vendor Threat Mitigation, which aims to give combatant commanders visibility and market analysis into the companies they work with to access data processing tools.

She said the goal is to ensure DOD isn’t inadvertently “contracting with the enemy” and to give commanders the authorities they need to protect logistics capabilities.

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