Pat Ryan Asks SOF Official About Standardization Across Military Information Support Operations

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During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) questioned Colby Jenkins, performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict at the Department of Defense, about standardizing information support operations.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Ryan, you're recognized for five minutes.

00:02Thank you, Mr. Chair.

00:02I know we have a hard stop, so if you need to cut me off, that's fine.

00:06I was late.

00:07Thank you both for being here.

00:09Thank you for all the work you're doing and have done.

00:11I want to pick up on what you said, General Fenton, earlier about IO and both the importance

00:15and opportunity and, frankly, really the high ROI we get on doing IO versus the cost of

00:22a lot of other things we've talked about today.

00:24And specifically within that realm, I want to focus on MISO and MISO within the Indopaycom

00:30AOR.

00:31I'm pretty sure you guys are still designated as the joint proponent for MISO across the

00:37joint force.

00:38As I've heard from various folks across the force, while there's continued investment

00:43in this area, we're still seeing that across the different components and TSOCs, there's

00:49a pretty wide variety of capability and specifically tech tools and data that's available from TSOC

00:57to TSOC.

00:58Have you guys looked at standardizing tools across the force for MISO so that kind of

01:04COCOM and TSOC commanders can better plan and sort of know what they're going to get?

01:09I can just talk policy real quick.

01:11Within SOLIC, we have the information operation policy office that sits in oversight of all

01:18the IO MISO plans across all the combatant commands.

01:21So that's a tremendous tool to make sure that our messages are synced, that we're coordinating

01:25with our interagency partners as well, which in the past was not necessarily the case.

01:29We had IO messages going across each other.

01:32And so synchronization is working at the policy level.

01:36But then down to the tactical level, do you want to expand on that?

01:38I'll just hit the part of, we are trying to make that a balance, as you mentioned, because

01:44we want folks to continue to innovate.

01:46And then there's a balance between standardization.

01:49And I think we're always looking at that, a representative in the right way through soft

01:52size, so we don't suffocate in innovation, which is for the here and now modernization

01:56for tomorrow.

01:57But I would offer that where I see standardization, because I don't have the modernization money,

02:03I'm unable to scale it, almost back to the previous discussion.

02:06So I think that's a challenge.

02:08If we find something, we want to bring across all the theater special ops commands, that

02:12takes funds.

02:14And I think in that arena, those are many of the other things in modernization we're not

02:19able to do.

02:20Yeah, and I just want to reiterate that I think that's one of the smartest and frankly lowest

02:24dollar investments we could make that would provide huge leverage in terms of when you

02:27have identified those, come back to us so that we can figure out how to help you scale

02:32that across.

02:33I know just a big, I only have two minutes, but I want to pick up also on what I've heard

02:39as I came in around this idea of sort of burden sharing and shifting the burden.

02:44I've heard that used a lot now in the last few months, but I don't really know what we're

02:48talking about there.

02:50Can you, either of you or both of you, with the time we have expand on that?

02:53Frankly, I'm concerned about that given I feel like that could mean we're backing away

02:59from critical partnerships that you all have and your forces have built through blood,

03:03sweat, and tears over many, many decades.

03:05Maybe I'm wrong.

03:06Can you help me understand that?

03:07Yeah, I'll just brief, start high and then we'll go down to the weeds.

03:12Just from my own personal experience, for example, working in Columbia as part of Plan

03:16Columbia, working by, with, and through our partners there for an internal defense that's

03:21core to our mission.

03:23And building that partner nation capacity allows us as a nation to build partners that

03:29are fully...

03:29No, no, not to interrupt you.

03:30I understand that.

03:31That's what I'm saying.

03:32I want to make sure we continue.

03:33We're not backing away from partners.

03:34We're just making sure that those partners that have capability and capacity can now operate

03:38on their own a little bit more efficiently.

03:40And then we can have priorities of...

03:42And I just...

03:43Well, go ahead, General.

03:44First, I'm happy to cover a really detailed one in the closed session, representative you there,

03:49and then I'll double down on Secretary Jenkins.

03:51We're not backing away.

03:52I think it's a key part of who SOCOM is.

03:55It's in our DNA to be a premier partner for us.

03:57Right now, almost 7,000 folks across 80 different countries persistently present.

04:04And I think that's the way we do business.

04:07I commend that.

04:08I agree.

04:08And I just want to make sure that is the message that we are sending loud and clear.

04:11And I appreciate you saying that and that ask that the others in the administration continue

04:16to reiterate that we're not backing away from those critical partnerships.

04:20And, Representative, I'd be derelict in my duties if I didn't say.

04:25And that cost of that is also going up.

04:27Yep.

04:27You know, the price to have somebody out there doing that, which I think is a global sensor,

04:31provides opportunities and advantages to COCOMs.

04:34The price of sustaining the humans when I come out of the Middle East has gotten up exponentially.

04:39So those are risk tradeoffs we make.

04:42Won't mean we're backing away from partners.

04:43Might mean the fiscal constraints plus the personnel piece put us in a place we can't do it.

04:48Thank you and yield back, Mr. Chair.

04:51With this, we're just.

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