New Navy panel on industrial base begins meeting

A new panel focused on the defense industrial base and chaired by two senior Navy officials is now in motion, according to a service spokesman.

The Navy secretary last month created the Defense Industrial Base Executive Steering Committee. "The DIB-ESC was established to address issues that jeopardize the security of the Department of the Navy (DON) data handled by defense contractors working on sensitive naval technology," according to an Aug. 6 memorandum published on a Navy website last week.

Navy acquisition executive Hondo Geurts and Chief Information Officer Aaron Weis co-chair the committee.

"Meetings and engagements are taking place. Now with this charter, the team is in the process of formalizing a battle rhythm to get the committee in motion," Capt. Danny Hernandez, Geurts' spokesman, told Inside Defense in a statement last week.

The committee has 10 voting members including senior civilians and uniformed officials such as the deputy secretaries for sustainment and security, the chief uniformed officers directing warfighting requirements as well as representatives from U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command.

"The mission of the DIB-ESC is to reduce the DON's risk of exposure from unauthorized disclosure of unclassified information stored on DIB networks," according to the memo. "The DIB-ESC will leverage existing DON tools to accomplish this mission, including changes to people, processes, technology, and organizational structure."