Pentagon offers tech firms $10 billion contract for providing cloud service

The US military has asked American tech giants to provide the Department of Defense (DoD) with the latest cloud technology, offering a $10 billion contract for it. 

The Pentagon announced on Friday that the DoD was seeking a limited request for bids for a new cloud initiative to replace the canceled decade-long Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) with a new $10 billion contract.

The US military called on the four largest cloud providers in the US, namely, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracle to bid for spots on the controversial multi-billion-dollar Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract that is the successor to the JEDI and has taken years to award.

The latter contract stalled and was eventually canceled following a flurry of protests and lawsuits from the big tech companies that had won spots on the contract.

A final award of the JWCC contract is expected around April 2022.

“Our commitment to supporting our nation’s military and ensuring that our warfighters and defense partners have access to the best technology for the best value is stronger than ever,” an Amazon spokesperson was quoted by MarketWatch as saying in an email. “We look forward to continuing to support the DoD’s modernization efforts and building solutions that help accomplish their critical missions.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon's former software chief revealed that cyber defenses capabilities in some US government departments were at "kindergarten level".

Nicolas Chaillan, who resigned in protest against the slow pace of technological transformation in the US military, said the failure to respond was putting the United States at risk.

Chaillan announced his resignation at the beginning of September, saying military officials were repeatedly put in charge of cyber initiatives for which they lacked experience.

Google pursuing Pentagon contract despite employee concerns: NYT

Google is reportedly pursuing a cloud computing contract with the Defense Department to provide its technology to the military, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

China is heading towards global dominance because of its technological advances, the Pentagon's former software chief told the Financial Times.

"We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion," he told the newspaper.

US has already lost artificial intelligence fight to China: Ex-Pentagon software chief

The Pentagon’s first chief software officer has said China is heading for global dominance because of its advances in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and cyber capabilities.

China accuses the US of unethical and illegal cyber activities.

The United States is the “empire of hacking and theft of secrets,” and the "biggest threat to global cybersecurity,” according to Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Senior Colonel Wu Qian.

He said the US has conducted mass-scale cyber espionage, surveillance and attacks on foreign governments, companies and individuals for years.

He called on the international community to push back against US cyberbullying and to urge that Washington explain its spying operations.

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