E) would be directed to deliver a plan for “the expedient transition of MSS authorities, infrastructure, support activities, and responsibilities” from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to the EC2 Program Office. This new program office would essentially fuse multiple Pentagon elements that have come to fruition since the late 2010s, and are associated with digitizing command-and-control processes and deploying AI across the joint force.The Defense Department is soliciting ideas for how artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities can assist in the zero-trust assessment process as the deadline to reach target-level compliance approaches. According to a request for information posted Tuesday, the DOD’s Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office is interested in leveraging “automation, AI and ML to accelerate and scale [zero trust] assessments” across the entire department — specifically for “purple team assessments.” The technologies will help the Pentagon mitigate its limited capacity to validate initial compliance and conduct continuous assessments, the RFI noted. Zero trust is a cybersecurity concept that assumes IT networks and systems are constantly under attack by adversaries, requiring the Pentagon to continuously monitor and authenticate users and their devices as they move through the network. The department’s Zero Trust Strategy mandates all DOD components to achieve “target levels” of zero trust by the end of fiscal 2027. Validating compliance requires a combination of internal and third-party assessments. A key part of the Pentagon’s independent evaluation process is a method called purple teaming, which analyzes and tests both how “red team” adversaries and “blue force” cyber defenders move and interact in an IT network. However, officials have previously noted that conducting comprehensive purple teaming can be a time-consuming process that can take warfighters away from other important missions.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.