Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy Inducted Into 2020 Wash100 for Army Strategy, Tech Modernization Efforts

Executive Mosaic is honored to present Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy as an inductee into the 2020 edition of the Wash100 Award for leading the U.S. Army’s overall strategy and modernization efforts to implement emerging technologies for the service branch.

This marks McCarthy’s first Wash100 Award. He was confirmed by the Senate to his current role in September 2019. McCarthy served as the service’s acting secretary and undersecretary and worked as vice president of the Lockheed Martin’s F-35 sustainment program.

During his confirmation hearing, McCarthy said that he would “continue to champion the Army’s strategy and vision with an emphasis on readiness, modernization and reform.” He added, “It is only through the care of our people that these priorities will be achieved.”

McCarthy recently announced that the service is working with the Pentagon for future deterrence efforts, including hypersonic missile research and development.

“We have a joint partnership across the entire Department of Defense between the Navy, Air Force and Missile Defense Agency” for research and development, he said in his remarks at a Brookings Institution event in Washington, D.C. “We’re investing billions of dollars across this future years defense plan … [and] looking at even increasing the profile over the next couple budgets.”

As part of modernization efforts, he noted that the Army will see prototypes and demonstrations transition to development and evaluation phases in the next 18 months.

McCarthy has acknowledged the role of emerging technologies in the Army’s modernization initiatives, including the potential of additive manufacturing to increase the service’s capability and reduce costs.

He said the service needs to “get religion” on 3D printing for small replacement parts. “What really kills us is parts. Parts: It’s why weapon systems have challenging operational readiness rates, it’s why weapon systems continue to get heavier over time as you incrementally upgrade the system,” he noted.

Apart from 3D printing, McCarthy has highlighted the importance of cloud computing. At an American Enterprise Institute event in November, he said the cloud will serve as the groundwork for the service branch’s future artificial intelligence-related efforts.

“Cloud has to happen to maximize AI,” he said. “The cloud architecture truly maximizes the artificial intelligence-like capabilities, because it’s all about the … format of the data and the speed at which you can move it.”

In October, McCarthy announced the Army’s plans to invest over $700M in data, artificial intelligence and cloud over the next five years.

“The intent is to move the Army from the industrial-age processes to the information age of leveraging data as a strategic asset and utilizing private sector technology,” McCarthy said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference. “We will manage big data, employ AI-enabled tools in earnest without sacrificing cyber security or resilience.”

Executive Mosaic congratulates the Army and Ryan McCarthy on his 2020 Wash100 Award selection. McCarthy’s leadership and vision to develop the Army’s strategy and modernization efforts will make his influence over the GovCon industry hard to overlook.

About The Wash100

The Wash100 Award, now in its seventh year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.