Another Pentagon Official Exits, Saying US Is at Risk of Losing Tech Edge

A senior official responsible for driving technological innovation at the U.S. Department of Defense has resigned, saying the Pentagon needs "structural change" and should behave more like SpaceX, Elon Musk's satellite company that has shaken up rocket launches. From a report: "We're falling behind the commercial base in key areas, so we've got to catch up," Preston Dunlap, the first person in the U.S. Department of Defense to fulfill the role of chief architect officer, told Bloomberg News in an interview. As a result the U.S. risked losing its technological edge against potential adversaries, he said. Dunlap, who handed in his resignation on Monday after three years in the post at the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Air Force, was responsible for pushing more technology into a $70 billion budget for research, development and acquisition. He plans to start a space software company focused on the nexus with satellites, data and artificial intelligence. The Pentagon was behind the domestic commercial sector in data, distributed computer processing, software, AI and cybersecurity, he said. "By the time the Government manages to produce something, it's too often obsolete," he said in a nine-page resignation statement he billed as a "playbook" to help guide the Pentagon, which he later made public on LinkedIn. "Much more must be done if DoD is going to regrow its thinning technological edge. Ironically as I'm writing this, I received notification that the phone lines are down at the Pentagon IT help desk. Phone lines are down? It's 2022, folks," he wrote.

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