In August, Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed restructuring Defense IT organizations as part of a streamlining and cost-cutting initiative to save $100 billion during the next five years. The plan includes eliminating the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, the organization in which Defense's chief information officer resides.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Defense wanted to remove duplication of IT management, which meant not only closing ASD/NII, but also moving the command-and-control organization of the Joint Staff and portions of IT groups in the Joint Forces Command to the new U.S. Cyber Command.

The CIO functions in those organizations will transfer to what Cartwright called a new and "strengthened" overall Defense CIO position.