Karen Dahut, Executive Vice President and Defense and Commercial Business Lead, Booz Allen Hamilton
The 2018 National Defense Strategy established a new priority: regaining the military’s technological advantage. Over the past year, Karen Dahut’s team has partnered with the Defense Department to advance this priority as evidenced by some of its most significant 2019 milestones.
First, Booz Allen won a task order to help the Army equip the digital soldier with the latest cross-reality, artificial intelligence and data-centric solutions to improve their physical and psychological performance. Second, the firm won a contract to support the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to conduct AI development and establish a development operations pipeline to rapidly deliver AI capabilities into mission environments. Third, the Army selected Booz Allen to build a new enterprise technology platform and help reach a new generation of soldiers through social media and community outreach.
Today’s digital ecosystems are composed of smaller components that must be networked — and no single solutions provider can manage it all, Dahut said. Legacy and proprietary systems must integrate the latest breakthroughs and emerging technologies to combat emerging threats.
“We’re focused on partnering with our defense clients to envision a digital battle space where our developers and innovators are pairing visionary ideas with an unprecedented convergence of technologies such as cloud, AI, virtual reality and augmented reality,” Dahut said.
Why Watch:
Booz Allen is investing in digital-centered solutions to help DOD gain an edge in the digital battle space. The firm is developing cutting-edge technologies for operational missions and shortening the timeline to bring solutions from the lab to the field.
“DOD leaders are talking about convergence and integration of technologies to give warriors real-time access to information,” Dahut said.