The Defense Department has released a nine-page document that details DoD’s plans to update its information technology infrastructure and build up its cybersecurity posture, Signal magazine reported Thursday.

Sandra Jontz writes Terry Halvorsen, DoD chief information officer, introduced Thursday the “DoD Information Technology Environment – Way Forward to Tomorrow’s Strategic Landscape” document that seeks to advance the Joint Information Environment concept as one of the agency’s eight goals.

DoD plans to carry out JIE capability programs that include the implementation of the Joint Regional Security Stacks, updates to the Defense Information Systems Network Transport Infrastructure and migration to an enterprise-wide defense model.

According to the document, the Pentagon aims to build up partnerships with industry and mission partners through the expansion of the IT Exchange Program, which will assign 50 government civilian employees to serve in private companies and 50 industry employees to perform DoD roles by the end of fiscal 2017.

Halvorsen’s office will work to update the accreditation and certification process and move DoD’s networks to the Microsoft-built Windows 10 operating system by the second quarter of FY 2017 in an effort to address cyber threats, according to the paper.

The agency also aims to set up an on-premise cloud managed service by the fourth quarter of FY 2017, the document said.

DoD’s milCloud platform will not “be the backbone of what provides us our enterprise services,” Halvorsen, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2016, told news media roundtable participants.

“There is no single cloud answer for DoD; there is no single cloud definition for DoD,” he added.

Other goals included in the document include the consolidation of DoD data centers, implementation of a two-year plan to end the use of common access cards in information systems and efforts to increase communications bandwidth in the agency’s information network.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the U.S. Army update the service branch’s policies for virtual training devices as well as define the process for device effectiveness analysis and integrate the devices in training strategies.

GAO said in a report published Tuesday it has discovered gaps in the integration of virtual training devices into operational training on front-end analysis, effectiveness analysis and linkage with training strategies.

Auditors said the Army has made progress towards its goals to support a broader range of military operations and has began to implement five programs designed to define training requirements and resources as well as change training processes.

GAO noted it has also identified nine Army training priorities including environment training to replicate complex battlefields units will face during combat.

The study was conducted on selected devices worth worth $535 million in acquisition costs as part of provisions from accompanying House and Senate bills for the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act to review the Army’s training plans use of virtual training.

A partnership within the U.S. Army has started to update the service branch’s intelligence processing facility to add another classified network designed to facilitate intelligence collection and reporting operations, the Army said Wednesday.

The service branch’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center has collaborated with the Distributed Common Ground System-Army to equip the latest version of the DCGS-A Intelligence Processing Center 2 with the National Security Agency network.

Lee Wyman, DCGS-A operations specialist and project lead for IPC-2, said the NSANet seeks to provide brigade command team, corps and division commanders with mobile servers.

The NSANet would be in addition to the IPC-2’s existing Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System and Secret Internet Protocol Router Network.

Wyman also noted that the IPC-2 is situated in a shelter and is linked to a high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle.

CERDEC’s command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance prototype integration facility performs engineering and integration work on the new IPC-2 and expects to finish the initial prototype in fiscal 2017.

CERDEC’s C4ISR PIF and DCGS-A will conduct a weight and physicality test of the latest IPC-2 in September and transition the facility into full rate production at the Tobyhanna Army Depot once the prototype is completed.

Other modifications to the shelter include the integration of a soldier workstation, installation of an Improved Environmental Control Unit and addition of a power entry panel.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has implemented a new tool that works to simulate water movements in the country’s rivers and streams as well as generate water forecast information.

NOAA said Tuesday the National Water Model is designed to run on the agency’s Cray XC40 supercomputer and process data from more than 8,000 stream gauges maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey.

NOAA also seeks to provide detailed water data to emergency managers, reservoir operators, first responders, recreationists, farmers, barge operators and ecosystem and floodplain managers with the tool.

“With a changing climate, we’re experiencing more prolonged droughts and a greater frequency of record-breaking floods across the country, underscoring the nation’s need for expanded water information,” said Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service.

Uccellini added the National Water Model aims to help increase U.S. communities’ resiliency to water extremes.

Thomas Graziano, NOAA’s office of water prediction at the National Weather Service, said the tool will help provide additional water variables, such as soil moisture, runoff, stream velocity, and other parameters, for a better understanding of water behavior within the country.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research created the model’s underlying technology.

NOAA built and implemented the model with the NCAR, the National Science Foundation, the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences and the Integrated Water Resources Science and Services Consortium.