Office of the Secretary of War (OSW)

This profile focuses on the civilian activities of the Department of War (DOW) under the Office of the Secretary of War (OSW) and how they relate to AI and biosecurity. For a more general overview of DOW’s components and their relevance to science and technology policy, see our DOW agency profile:

Introduction

The Office of the Secretary of War (OSW) is located in the Pentagon, the DOW’s headquarters. With more than 2,200 staff as of 2022, OSW assists the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of War in “policy development, planning, resource management and program evaluation.”

The Secretary of War (SecWar) and Deputy Secretary of War (DepSecWar) are presidentially appointed civilian officials, and OSW’s oversight role is rooted in the principle of civilian oversight of the military. So, unlike the military departments or combatant commands, OSW is predominantly staffed by civilian personnel and has a distinctly civilian culture relative to much of the rest of DOW. Its staff are neither required to undergo military training nor serve in the field. While some staff come to OSW with military backgrounds, the majority are experts in the policy and programmatic work that OSW conducts.

Each component is led by a principal staff assistant, or “OSW Component head”, including the Under Secretaries of Defense, the Assistant Secretaries of Defense, the Chief Digital and AI Officer (CDAO), and others. Some of these components are purely operational (e.g. the General Counsel who provides legal advice to OSW). In contrast, others are policy-oriented (e.g. Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation who plays a central role in DOW’s budget process).

While most OSW components do not have their own acquisition authority, OSW produces both the National Defense Strategy (NDS)—which sets the strategic direction for DOW—and the Defense Planning Guidance, which aligns the defense budget to NDS priorities. The Services and CCMDs, which do have acquisition authority, work with OSW to shape the NDS and DPG, but ultimately their budgets must align with the DPG.

OSW and AI policy

OSW runs several AI-relevant lines of effort, including:

1. investing in and conducting AI research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E),
2. integrating AI into military programs and budget planning,
3. implementing national AI policies (e.g. the AI EO) as they apply to OSW,
4. coordinating with academic, industrial, and international partners on responsible AI development,
5. establishing DOW strategic directives, policies, and guidelines for AI adoption,
6. prioritizing and streamlining emerging technology procurement, and
7. assessing national security risks and opportunities associated with AI and other emerging technologies.

Over the last few years, new offices were created within OSW to coordinate the procurement of and strategic response to AI technologies. In 2022, DOW set up a new hub for AI—the Office of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO)—by combining several existing offices: the Joint AI Center (JAIC), Defense Digital Services (DDS), the Chief Data Officer, and the enterprise platform Advana. CDAO oversees DOW’s strategy and policy development for accelerating data, analytics, and AI adoption across the department, and it manages the technical implementation of digital infrastructure and services that support DOW components’ development, adoption, and scaling of AI and analytics. CDAO reports to the Deputy Secretary of War and is led by a Chief Digital AI Officer (CDAO) and a Deputy CDAO (DCDAO). Several Acting DCDAOs oversee specific functional offices, such as Algorithmic Warfare, Acquisitions, Policy, Mission Analytics, Enterprise Platforms and Services, and Advanced C2 Acceleration.

In 2023, the Department established the new Force Development and Emerging Capabilities Office (FDEC) under OSW’s Policy office. The office performs strategic and budgetary planning for DOW investments in the new and existing technologies needed for the department’s mission. It also conducts force planning assessments to identify strategic and operational risks posed by emerging technologies and how to mitigate them, and it leads interagency work associated with AI and would lead on international engagements that involve military uses of AI.

The Biden Administration’s October 2023 Executive Order on AI includes requirements for OSW to investigate AI-related biosecurity risks, launch a project on using AI to remediate cybersecurity threats to defense networks, and submit a report on securing noncitizen defense-relevant AI talent, among other things. (For more detail, see this December 2023 3-pager from the Congressional Research Service)

See our DOW agency profile for a list of major AI-related developments at DOW and for information on working at DOW and OSW.

AI-relevant offices within OSW

OSW contains several offices that impact AI in different ways, including (not necessarily comprehensive):

OSW and biosecurity policy

Many of the DOW offices and programs most directly involved in biosecurity and biodefense-related initiatives sit within OSW. These efforts include:

1. Developing strategic policy and guidance for the SecWar and ensuring DOW-wide readiness and resilience against biothreats
2. Strategizing and coordinating the adoption of emerging biotechnologies to mitigate strategic and operational risk
3. Safeguarding military personnel through comprehensive programs focused on detection, diagnostics, and response to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats
4. Leading advanced biotechnology research and overseeing the development of critical biosecurity technologies
5. Regulating and managing export controls to prevent the proliferation of dual-use biotechnology (incl. with international partners via the Australia Group)
6. Enhancing medical capabilities to address infectious disease threats to ensure total force readiness
7. Improving partner nations’ healthcare capacity and pandemic response through international cooperation and support programs
8. Managing the acquisition and sustainment of defense systems related to chem-bio defense.

In 2022, the White House published the National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan and DOW published the National Defense Strategy. Both of these announce efforts to better prepare for biosecurity threats following the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on these, in 2023 DOW released the first Biodefense Posture Review (BPR), which outlined comprehensive reforms to address biological threats through 2035. The BPR highlighted that DOW has the requisite authorities and resources, but needs a more collective and unified approach to its coordination of biosecurity efforts. Given OSW’s responsibility for policy development, planning, resource management, and program evaluation, much of the coordination work laid out in the BPR falls to OSW components.

Biosecurity-relevant offices within OSW

OSW contains several offices that impact biosecurity in different ways, including (not necessarily comprehensive):

Further reading