7000 digital officers will appear in the Defense Forces: what tasks will they perform
Oksana Ferchuk (Photo: Ministry of Defense)

The Defense Forces will employ hundreds of digital officers as part of the development of the IT vertical. This was announced at the Digital Defense Forum event by Deputy Minister of Defense for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization Oksana Ferchuk, the LIGA.net.

She said that the goal is to have digital officers in every unit within the IT vertical, starting with the battalion, brigade, corps, operational command, every command, and every department of the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense.

The official noted that all military personnel are now using digital products, so they must be able to do so at the modern level, including relying on artificial intelligence.

According to Ferchuk, it depends on how advanced the Ukrainian army will be, how much it will be able to use the technological advantage that exists today.

It is planned that up to 7000 digital officers will appear in the Ukrainian army units.

"The big challenge will be to find the right ones together. What do I mean by that? These people must have IT knowledge and have IT expertise. If you appoint people without IT expertise to these positions, we will waste our time and resources," the Deputy Minister explained.

These positions will be filled in January, she said.

Vice Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development, Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov said the task of digital officers:

→ implement systems in the divisions;

→ collect and provide feedback;

→ understand real needs;

→ become customers and solution architects;

→ to form an IT culture in the Defense Forces.

"Thanks to the new structure, we will be able to significantly accelerate the digitalization of the army. It will be more efficient to introduce digital products in the army, receive systematic feedback and scale the best military initiatives," he emphasized.

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