Pentagon and Silicon Valley cyberunit reveals leaders and HQ
The Department of Defense's partnership with Silicon Valley is a done deal, and now officials have announced who would serve as the initiative's head honchos. According to The Wall Street Journal, two former high-ranking military officials will lead the Defense Innovation Unit–Experimental or DIU-x project. George Duchak, the former director of Information Directorate (ID) at the Air Force Research Laboratory, will serve at its director. ID is in charge of the airmen's "command, control, communications, computers and intelligence and cyber technologies." Meanwhile, former Navy SEAL and Reserve officer Rear Adm. Daniel "Brian" Hendrickson will be the deputy.
They'll serve as the main connection between Silicon Valley companies and the Pentagon, getting rid of the numerous middlemen that tech firms typically have to go through to get to the Department of Defense. DoD Secretary Ash Carter believes the relationship can eventually help tech startups find work within the department, which could mean that securing a contract with the Pentagon will be easier in the future. In addition to revealing the cyberunit's leaders, officials also told the WSJ that the DIU-x offices will be built near Moffett Field. That's the same airfield Google leased from NASA in 2014 and where it tested (or where it's still testing) its self-driving car prototypes.
[Image credit: Secretary of Defense/Flickr]
