Revive and strengthen the Joint Interoperability Test Command

OPINION:

America’s enemies are preparing to fight as one. Unless we do the same, we put our troops at risk.

For generations, American innovation has given our military the edge. Radar helped us win World War II. Stealth technology helped keep us safe during the Cold War. Time and again, our engineers, scientists and soldiers have pushed the boundaries of what is possible. Today, the real danger is not whether we can invent the best technology; it’s whether all those technologies can work together when our troops need them most.

China and Russia have been pouring resources into building military systems designed to operate seamlessly. Their weapons, sensors and communications are being developed as one integrated whole. By contrast, the United States too often delivers cutting-edge tools that are brilliant in isolation but clumsy in practice because they cannot “talk” to one another. A fighter jet, a drone and a ship may all be state-of-the-art, but if they cannot share information in real time, they are weaker than the sum of their parts.

We have an agency that was designed to prevent this problem. The Joint Interoperability Test Command was created to ensure that every piece of American military equipment can work across the services and with our allies. It was supposed to be the independent referee, making sure radios, satellites, weapons and now artificial intelligence all fit together as one system. Yet JITC has been allowed to wither into an underused tool. At a time when interoperability is the difference between winning and losing, JITC should be at the very center of our national defense.

Modern warfare is not fought in one dimension. Battles will stretch across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace all at once. In the Pacific, where distances are vast and speed is everything, the United States and its allies will win only if our systems can share information instantly and make decisions faster than our adversaries. AI will play a key role in this. It can sift through mountains of data and offer options to commanders in seconds.

AI also comes with serious risks, algorithms that behave unpredictably, hidden biases or vulnerabilities that our enemies can exploit. Unless we test these technologies rigorously and make sure they can function under stress, we are asking American service members to go into battle with tools they cannot fully trust.

The way Washington buys weapons makes the problem worse. The system rewards companies for signing contracts quickly, not for delivering equipment that works in combat. Contractors focus on deadlines and profits. Program offices, under pressure to move fast, sometimes accept “good enough” solutions instead of demanding real integration. The result is a patchwork military where different systems “speak” different digital languages.

We have seen the consequences before. The F-35 fighter jet program was delayed for years and cost taxpayers billions of dollars because its technology did not fully mesh with other systems. Early, independent testing could have prevented those setbacks.

Reviving JITC is not about bureaucracy; it is about survival. Just as no one would put an untested missile defense system into the field, we cannot afford to gamble with the digital nervous system of our military. Congress should make sure JITC has the resources and the authority to test new technologies, especially AI and autonomous systems, for reliability and resilience.

Some critics argue that tougher testing will slow down the process. The opposite is true. By catching problems early, JITC will save time and money and, most important, lives.

A stronger JITC would also make the defense industry healthier. When everyone has to meet the same high standards, smaller and newer companies have a fair chance to compete with the giants. Instead of relying on connections or custom solutions, contractors would know from the start that their products must work across the board. For our allies, knowing that American systems have been independently tested for interoperability means greater confidence that they can fight side by side with us. Interoperability builds trust, and trust builds coalitions.

Meanwhile, our adversaries are not standing still. China is building its military to fight as one unified system. Russia, even with its economic troubles, continues experimenting with ways to link its drones, artillery and electronic warfare into a single force. If the United States clings to fragmented, untested systems, we risk entering the next conflict with incredible weapons that cannot operate together when it counts.

History teaches us that peace comes through strength, and strength is not just about brilliant designs; it is also about proven reliability. We already have the means to guarantee that reliability in JITC. To neglect it now is to gamble with the lives of our service members and the safety of our nation.

An “America First” defense strategy demands that we do better. It demands that we empower JITC, test our systems rigorously and never again send our warfighters into harm’s way with tools they cannot trust. The cost of failure is too high, and the price will be paid in American lives.

• The Honorable Robert Wilkie served as the 10th secretary of veterans affairs and undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness in the first Trump administration.