Army Lt. Gen. Paul T. Stanton, Defense Information Systems Agency director and Department of Defense Cyber Defense Command commander, issued a call to action for industry partners, emphasizing that deep collaboration is essential to delivering decisive advantages to U.S. warfighters.
Speaking to a hybrid audience of several thousand in-person and virtual attendees at DISA’s Forecast to Industry 2025 event, Stanton outlined the agency’s strategic direction and underscored the critical role industry plays in achieving its mission. The annual F2I event provides industry with detailed insight into DISA’s upcoming acquisition and procurement plans, fostering a common understanding of the Department of War’s needs and creating networking opportunities with agency program managers and senior leaders.
“It really does mean a lot to us as the Department of War that you made it here,” Stanton began, thanking the assembled partners. “This session is really meaningful for DISA as a combat support agency, for us to be able to explain the direction that we're headed.”
Stanton framed his remarks around four key agency priorities: readiness, campaigning, continuous modernization and establishing lethality. He distilled these priorities into a core mission: delivering “functionally relevant capability” to the warfighting community when and where it is needed most.
He stressed that this means providing more than just individual components or software. Instead, DISA must deliver comprehensive, integrated solutions that solve complex problems for combatant commanders.
“Functionally relevant capability means that I do not hand [Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command commander] a widget, but rather a fully integrated system of systems that solves a meaningful problem for the commander and his warfighting requirements,” Stanton explained. “It does me no good to deliver a software solution if we don't have the underlying data transport, data fabric, security, compute and store architecture in order to make that software component relevant.”
Achieving this level of integration, Stanton asserted, is impossible for DISA to do alone. He painted a clear picture of a modern battlefield environment where data from sensors must be moved, processed and analyzed in near-real time to inform a commander’s decisions. This complex kill chain requires a vast ecosystem of technologies, from undersea fiber optic cables and satellite communications to data centers and advanced analytical software, that no single organization can provide.
“We have to work together in order to drive that solution,” he stated. “In order for us to get there, we as DISA, can't do it without everyone that's in this room. The means by which we deliver that functionally relevant capability in a time of continuous modernization, when the enemy has a vote, is by working together.”
Stanton further detailed that DISA’s approach must be holistic, accounting for doctrine, organization, training, material, leadership, people, facilities and policy to ensure new capabilities are not just delivered but are also fully operational and sustainable in theater.
Ultimately, Stanton said, the collective effort between DISA and its industry partners is aimed at one singular, vital outcome.
“Our collective and mutually supporting goals [are] supporting the Department of War’s requirements to get the right data to the right place at the right time, to make a better and faster decision than the enemy,” Stanton concluded. “That's why we're here.”