DISA chief to industry: 'your system is not interesting' without data sharing
NewsDecember 11, 2025
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland. The head of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) warned vendors at AOC 2025 that new electromagnetic-spectrum tools must plug into joint data systems or risk irrelevance.
DISA Director Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton said the Electromagnetic Battle Management -- Joint (EMB&J) system is being built as the hub for sharing sensor data across the services and with partners. Systems that cannot feed into that environment will not solve the problem commanders face, he argued.
“If you’re designing a system that can’t speak the language of the data aggregation inside of an inherently joint fight, then your system is not interesting. It doesn’t solve the problem,” Stanton told attendees.
He urged developers to understand the interfaces for getting data into EMB&J and to design around joint and coalition use from the start, not as an add-on. “If we’re building capabilities that only speak to a certain service, shame on us,” he said.
Stanton also cautioned against streaming raw data off platforms in contested environments, pointing to bandwidth limits and targeting risk. Instead, he called for more processing at the edge and careful selection of what information is sent back and how often.
