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Our world is changing — and so is the way we defend it. To keep pace, U.S. defense agencies are seeking to modernize IT systems in ways that allow them to take advantage of the efficiencies and reliability that the newest technologies can provide. These efficiencies will become increasingly necessary in order to remain competitive as the battlespace evolves.

Perhaps no one is more clued in to this than Gerry Fasano. Fasano leads Leidos’ Defense Group, a multi-billion dollar juggernaut that employs more than 10,000 people — nearly half of whom are veterans — and whose mission is to be bold in its approach to solving challenges for the Department of Defense. The approach is working. Among other achievements, the group has produced a groundbreaking contractor-owned, contractor-operated (COCO) high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft that defies the status quo; and a workforce that’s deftly operating, defending, and modernizing one of the world’s largest networks.

But even before Fasano took the helm of Leidos’ Defense Group, he was dedicated to serving his country.

“The spirit of service is engrained in our family,” Fasano says, noting that his father was a defense contractor at GE Aerospace for more than 40 years. “We grew up with a deep appreciation for those who serve and it’s an honor to be part of an organization that supports the critical missions of our military, today.”

Fasano came to Leidos in 2016 after leading Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions Defense business. When Leidos acquired that business, Fasano was asked to lead integration.

“That experience gave me a hands-on, sleeves-up understanding of our business portfolio and the phenomenal capabilities we could leverage for our customers, as well as a genuine appreciation for our people and their passion for innovation and problem solving,” says Fasano.

Indeed, after assuming his current role in 2018 the division has seen incredible success, namely the award of the Global Solutions Management – Operations (GSM-O) II contract, under which Leidos operates, defends, and sustains the Department of Defense Information Network / Defense Information System Network (DoDIN/DISN) and the Navy Service Management, Integration, and Transport (SMIT) contract, which operates shore-based networks that serve more than 650,000 sailors, Marines and civilian professionals in the Navy and Marine Corps.

“What we’ve accomplished as a group and what we’ve delivered for our customers in the past two years is a testament to how well we understand their mission-critical challenges and how determined we are to revolutionize capabilities like C4ISR, autonomy and AI/ML,” says Fasano.

Gerry Fasano, Defense Group, Leidos

The Need to Modernize

This know-how around revolutionary capabilities will become even more critical as the DOD begins to transform networks to meet the needs of tomorrow’s warfighters.

“In today’s modern world it’s all about information and decision making at the speed of awareness. Modernization helps us deliver information at the speed needed for warfighters and command structures to make critical decisions,” says Fasano.

By modernizing networks, agencies can provide the cyber resiliency necessary to keep these networks online and secure against cyber threats. It also helps agencies to tap lower maintenance costs, as the cost of sustaining older systems is significantly greater, and, perhaps most importantly, it allows the DOD to leverage emerging technologies that can improve decision-making and help to maintain the U.S. competitive advantage. Chief among these capabilities is automation.

“With modernization comes an increase in automation. That increase allows us to get out of ‘mandraulically’ attacking a problem and bring in the power of technology to reduce the speed and cost associated with changes and ongoing maintenance,” explains Fasano. “Ultimately, it is key to modernize for mission outcomes, resiliency and to overcome budget challenges.”

Making Modernization a Reality

But modernization is easier said than done, particularly when it comes to networks as critical and frequently attacked as the DOD’s.

“The mission is always on,” says Fasano. “We do not have the ability to take the network down. This is not our home network where we can unplug for a day and figure things out. Our customer’s mission is 24/7. [An effort] akin to changing the tires while driving the bus.”

Moreover, the DOD faces a number of unique constraints that prevent it from adopting rapidly evolving commercial technologies.

“The DOD has to operate globally in networks that are untrusted or are establishing trust. They have to operate in worlds where they may not have network connectivity. And these things are all being impacted at the same time by sophisticated actors,” says Fasano.

The answer, he notes, is to build in a level of resilience that starts with a foundation in commercial technology, although it will take some doing in order to get it out to the warfighter at a global scale.

Despite these challenges, Fasano and his team aren’t just thinking about modernizing DOD networks —they’re working to achieve it. Leidos has been working with the Defense Information Systems Agency — whose networks support some of the nation’s most critical missions, including all DOD defense traffic — for decades to maintain and modernize networks and has recently helped to transform their networks.

“We have worked side-by-side with DISA to converge operations to an Active-Active structure, introduce automation, and improve the security layers at the boundary and regional elements of DISA’s global network,” says Fasano.

Ultimately, the improvements aim to deliver greater resiliency, situational awareness, automation and cost reductions. Going forward, Fasano says, modernization also affords an opportunity to converge bespoke networks and systems.

“As we drive that convergence it brings down costs and creates a smaller attack plane for our adversaries,” he explains.

Gerry Fasano, Defense Group, Leidos

A Transformed Future

As Leidos assumes work on its 10-year DoDIN/DISN contract with DISA, it’s clear that Fasano’s work with the DOD is far from over. Going forward, as the DOD continues to face the need to choose between sustainment and modernization, Fasano urges the Defense Department to continue to turn its face toward modernization to remain ahead of their threats.

And modernization is at the heart of Leidos’ work with Navy NGEN-R SMIT. SMIT is the eight-year, $7.7 billion umbrella contract that provides IT services for the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), OCONUS Enterprise Network (ONE-Net) and the Marine Corps Enterprise Network (MCEN).

Using model-based system engineering and agile operations, Leidos is focused on delivering greater command and control capabilities to maneuver the networks in real-time to respond to threats and new mission requirements. Through new automation and smarter analytics on network performance, the team expects to improve end user performance and reduce the overall total cost of operations for the Department of the Navy.

With the transition from the incumbent already underway, Leidos has begun to work with the Navy client to create a multi-lab ecosystem including a series of high-performance enterprise risk reduction virtual labs to help rapidly develop, test and deploy new technologies while minimizing security or operational risks.

It’s a monumental effort, but it’s clear, he said, the Navy wants to see transformation.

“It’s heartening to see the shift towards modernization, but there is so much further to go,” says Fasano. “The pace of technology and the pace of the threat has not slowed down at all. We are working hard to achieve modernization and to deliver it in a secure and resilient fashion.”

Leidos has taken steps internally to ensure that it can continue to support the DOD in its mission to remain effective and competitive, completing its acquisition of leading IT and cloud services provider 1901 Group in January 2021. The addition will advance Leidos’ ability to support future digital modernization efforts at the DOD, says Fasano, and augment the company’s ability to address the accelerating cloud and provide managed IT services.

Most importantly, however, 1901 Group “shares our commitment to providing customers with progressive, agile, secure and efficient solutions to assist them in their digital modernization journey,” says Fasano.

Indeed, as the DOD continues to weigh these challenges of modernization, Leidos is making every effort to ensure they are there to support them every step of the way — as they have been for decades, even amid a crisis.

“While the world has been upended due to the coronavirus pandemic, Leidos has not wavered in accelerating the ideas needed to confront emerging threats on air, land and sea,” says Fasano. “We have the depth and scale to provide IT processes, playbooks, enterprise services, tools, and training to meet mission requirements at speed and scale.”

Learn more about how Leidos’ integrated solutions are enabling defense agencies to achieve global mission success across every domain.