The Department of Defense (DoD) has unveiled a new strategy to help DoD transform into a data-centric organization that considers data as a strategic resource critical to maintaining operational advantage on the battlefield.

DoD said Thursday that the Data Strategy will help advance the National Defense Strategy and initially focus on the areas of business analytics, senior leader decision support and joint all domain operations. 

The strategy has eight guiding principles, including data ethics, collective data stewardship, data for artificial intelligence training and data as a strategic asset. 

“Data is the ammunition in the Digital Modernization Strategy and is increasingly central to warfighter advantage on and off the battlefield. … This strategy is our first step to making that ammo persistently available to the men and women of the DOD regardless of echelon or geographic location,” said Dana Deasy, chief information officer at DoD and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner.

Dave Spirk, chief data officer at the Pentagon, will work with Joint Staff and service department CDOs to operationalize the strategy’s seven goals such as making data interoperable, secure and visible.