Pentagon Fine-Tunes CIO Job, Shuts Down Networks Post

Teri Takai, the Defense Department's chief information officer, will lose "acquisition specific functions," according to a Jan. 11 memo signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter that was sent to me by a benevolent reader today.

That memo, which formally disestablished the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration organization mandated by then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in August 2010, transfers the CIO acquisition functions to the undersecreatry of Defense for acqusitions, technology and logistics, a post Carter held before getting his deputy stripes.

The memo said the Pentagon CIO will, however, retain statutory responsibility for acquisitions related to defense business systems "for which the primary purpose is to support information technology infrastructure or information assurance activities."

The Pentagon CIO will serve as the "primary authority for the policy and oversight of information resources management, to include matters related to information technology, network defense and network operations," the memo said.

The Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, based in Omaha, Neb., "will continue to direct operations to secure, operate and defend DoD information networks in compliance with policy direction," the memo said.

This realignment, Carter said, "will further our efforts to eliminate duplicative functions and refocus efforts to ensure that resources and activities are directed to the highest overall priorities of the Department, particularly in today's fiscal environment of constrained budgets and reduced spending."