DIU embed works to help Eucom modernize against real-world threats

Since he arrived overseas last August as the first-ever Defense Innovation Unit embed within U.S. European Command, Marine Corps reservist Col. Glenn McCartan has connected military personnel to computer vision and other in-demand technologies and expanded the Pentagon’s engagements with nontraditional, international contractors, he told DefenseScoop this week.

A major element of the hub’s new “DIU 3.0” strategic vision is to hone in on and confront the most critical capability gaps within the military by deploying members of the organization to work side-by-side with warfighters in their real-world operational environments.

DIU Director Doug Beck “believes in having embeds and representation at all the critical organizations that we feel that need to have an impact,” McCartan said.

In an interview with DefenseScoop on the sidelines of NDIA’s Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition on Wednesday, he shed light on some of the learnings he’s gathered and impacts he’s aiming for in this first-of-its-kind role as a defense tech “advocate.”

“A lot of times there’s a lack of understanding of what the technology can do, and just having and being a credible voice to say, ‘These are technologies and they provide real value.’ And it’s not coming from someone trying to sell it, but rather being a uniformed rep who says, ‘I’ve seen this. This is valid. You should really look at it.’ That gives you credibility to bring the technology to bear in that regard,” he said. 

A ‘real threat’

McCartan is DIU’s second-ever embed to be sent to an overseas combatant command, but more are expected to follow.

The first implant from the innovation hub was sent to Indo-Pacific Command, which is responsible for the U.S. military’s missions in a region that is home to China, the nation considered the top long-term strategic threat to the United States. While McCartan engages often with his colleague based in Indo-Pacom, their day-to-days are different.

“It’s hard to compare commands to the same thing, because there’s different missions, different focus, different adversaries. So the way I focus is specifically on Eucom needs, which is very squarely focused on the Russia threat, land-based area, and which is much different from Indo-Pacom which is very water based,” he explained. “So I don’t try to mirror everything that’s happening in Indo-Pacom. I try to glean lessons learned from just the solutions, to the structure, to what we recommend. So a lot of it’s just kind of not trying to repeat mistakes and to repeat successes.”

Innovators from DIU are being embedded in the combatant commands at a time when wars are being fought and conflicts are emerging in multiple regions around the world.

“Eucom is not Indo-Pacom. Eucom has their own problem set, and Russia is … a real threat. Really, it’s something I think about a lot,” McCartan told DefenseScoop.

“If you look at the trend lines, you look at what they’re saying in the media, the prime minister of Poland said this reminds him of 1939 [when World War II began in Europe]. And then you have NATO senior leaders all saying that we need to really think about this. Russia doubled their percent of GDP towards defense in the last few years, and you’ve got to follow the trend lines. And so while everything’s Indo-Pacom focused — rightfully so — there is also an active threat here that we cannot ignore. So we’ve got to think about the solutions for that,” McCartan said.

Leadership and service members from different Eucom teams also expressed that sentiment across a number of panels at the NDIA conference in Washington this week.

“The European theater is currently facing critical economic, social, and political and military challenges that are increasingly impacting global peace and stability,” Sally Pfenning, Eucom’s director for requirements and resource integration, J8, said during a presentation on Wednesday.

“Russia has massed and modernized air, maritime, space, cyber forces — posing significant threats to the United States, partner and allied national security. Eucom will continue to require resilient, lethal and scalable combat capabilities in each of these domains,” she noted.

Moscow has been steadily refreshing its nuclear force and other capabilities by developing and advancing intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic glide vehicles, nuclear-powered cruise missiles, nuclear-powered underwater drones, anti-satellite systems and on-orbit nuclear weapons.

In the war sparked by the invasion of Ukraine, “only Russian land forces and the Black Sea fleet have suffered any meaningful losses. However, they are being reconstituted at rates faster than we originally estimated,” Pfenning said.

Simultaneously, she added, China continues to expand its influence in Europe by attempting to strengthen relationships with Russia and setting conditions to challenge security partnerships and destabilize the theater.

“We now have broader security concerns — both here in America and in the European capital[s] — that are provoked by Russia further increasing partnerships and willingness to share technology with China, Iran, North Korea, [which] creates the most powerful and dangerous threat the United States has faced in decades,” Pfenning said.

As an embed, McCartan said he’s working strategically to accelerate technologies that can help Eucom “counter that mass” that Pfenning spotlighted.  

“Those are the same problem sets — we’re just looking at it from nontraditional sources,” he explained.

Broadly, he organizes his job functions across four primary lines of effort.

“The first and foremost is to try to help the commands address their critical capability gaps, so Eucom’s needs, down to component level. That’s a big focus in my work,” McCartan said.

The second bucket involves operational support and crisis response.

“For example, I talk to Ukraine quite a bit about leveraging commercial technology in whatever capacity — whether it be physically showing them the technology, introducing them to venture capital, broadening their network, [etc.],” he said.

The third area encompasses work with allies and partners in the region, and particularly, members of the NATO alliance.

And “the fourth one,” McCartan noted, is all about industrial base engagement.

“I do a whole bunch of different things on any given day …” he told DefenseScoop.

Making it easier

At many points during the NDIA conference, speakers representing European Command pointed to seemingly dire needs for the Defense Department to speed up processes for buying and deploying innovative tech that is simple, rugged, and can be easily integrated.

“What we are really looking for, in many ways, is not as exquisite, not as excitingly cutting-edge or elegant as it is pragmatic, practical, affordable, scalable. Something that you can use to replace expensive cruise missiles on lesser target sets, something that you can — frankly, let’s just be honest — kill a whole lot of times, a whole lot of Russians very quickly. It doesn’t have to overcome the quantum radar, but you’ve got to be able to get in the theater and you’ve got to be able to sustain manufacturing and production,” Army Lt. Col. Timothy Hodge, chief of Eucom’s integration branch, J8, said.

When asked about the capabilities he’s getting the most requests for from the warfighters he’s working side-by-side with, McCartan immediately pointed to electronic warfare and counter-drone systems.

In terms of his impacts made for DIU in Europe so far, he discussed helping members of the command adopt artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies that were developed prior to his tenure for conducting rapid battle damage assessments in Ukraine and elsewhere.

“Normally it would take two to three weeks to do. And now you’ll be able to do this in a matter of 30 minutes. So you’re taking an analyst job and making it much, much easier. It really started with the humanitarian aid perspective — that’s the original use case for it. And what we did was just educate people to say, ‘Hey, these are solutions that you can use now that can just make your job a lot easier,’” McCartan said.

He’s planning to be “stationed” with Eucom for one or potentially two more years.

“It just depends on how things shake out — I’m a mobilized reservist,” he told DefenseScoop.