The critical importance of the digital domain in warfare and national security shows that the Department of War (DoW) can no longer treat cyberspace as an operational silo. To dominate this battlespace with confidence, speed, and precision, cyber capabilities must become the “connective tissue of all domain warfare,” said Katherine Sutton, Assistant Secretary of War for Cyber Policy and Principal Cyber Advisor to the Secretary of War, at TechNet Cyber 2026. This year’s event centered on emerging technologies as enablers of mission success and key challenges such as workforce development, legacy system integration, and accelerating deployment.
AI is Reshaping the Digital Domain
Tackling these challenges has guided the DoW to identify three key focus areas: ensuring cyber capabilities are an integral part of operation plans, securing a strategic advantage in cyberspace, and developing skilled cyber talent. One driver and facilitator of all three is the government’s accelerating adoption of AI, which can provide key advantages but also expands the government’s attack surface. “While AI is a powerful enabler of decision-making, cyber defense, and mission effectiveness, it also introduces new risks and threat vectors,” said Chad Hess of SkyEdge Systems. “Successful AI adoption requires strong governance, data protection, model oversight, and human accountability.”
Frontier AI—the most advanced general-purpose AI models at a given time—adds another layer of complexity as both a potential tool for identifying vulnerabilities in government networks and an asset to threat actors who now have the ability to exploit those openings at speed. In his keynote address at TechNet Cyber, Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), explained the impact of frontier models on the operating environment, sharing his belief that the technology will change the delivery of warfighting capabilities.
A New Era of DoW Partnerships
In order to remediate vulnerabilities across the Department of War Information Network at speed and scale, Stanton shared that a new approach is necessary, one which involves stronger government-industry partnerships. Currently, even long-established partnerships are often transactional and task based. But in DISA’s new teamwork mindset, vendors must act as execution partners who share the risk and the mission with the agency. Said Stanton: “If you’re contracted with us, you’re on the team. But we have to put individual tasks and collective tasks together towards an actual mission, towards an objective and towards an outcome.”
As missions grow more complex, the Department of War’s technical edge will rely on quality talent, continuous innovation, and a diverse industrial base. According to Tabbitha Pham, Senior Business Analyst at SecuriGence, DISA and other defense agencies will need both small businesses and large integrators as their execution partners to maintain the innovation advantage over their adversaries. “Large primes provide scale, but small businesses provide agility, specialization, and rapid adaptation,” Pham said. “In an era defined by cyber conflict, AI, Zero Trust, and classified modernization, the Department needs both.”
DoW agencies and partners will have the opportunity to continue these conversations at TechNet Augusta, taking place on August 17-20 in Augusta, GA. With topics ranging from AI governance and cyber maturity to developing mission-ready cyber talent, the lessons and insights from this event will help refine the role of the digital domain in today’s warfare.