It’s been less than a week since President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating the Department of Defense as the Department of War. And while Congress has blocked debate of the change for now, officials for the Pentagon’s IT agency have seemingly already renamed the networks and infrastructure used for missions worldwide.
“When we talk about the Department of War Information Network, it doesn’t exist without industry. It’s nothing more than a nomination of industry products, and we put them together in a meaningful way. We make some minor adjustments and modifications to ensure that we meet the war fighting requirements,” Defense Information Systems Agency leader Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton said Thursday during the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, referring to a network typically known as the Department of Defense Information Network, or DODIN.
Name changes and complicated acronyms are common in the U.S. government. But the White House’s executive order to rename the Defense Department has started a trickle-down effect with likely unintended consequences as officials seem to adhere to new policy without specific guidance. Without consistency, the effects could lead to confusion from private companies and mission partners who work with the Pentagon and its entities. And some of the quickly changed names could result in unfortunate acronyms—such as “DOWNet,” which seems to imply a broken network, for the program previously called the Department of Defense Network.
DISA operates and maintains communications networks and tools for the White House, Pentagon, military departments, combatant commands, defense agencies, and field activities. The agency also handles networks that allies and partners use to communicate with the U.S. military. That sprawling, global system is DODIN—which is how Stanton referred to it in subsequent references, when describing missions at the U.S. southern border.
“The DODIN today won’t be the DODIN tomorrow, which is why my No. 2 priority is continuous modernization. We must keep pace with technology. We must keep pace with the adversary. We must keep pace with our mission command,” Stanton said.
For now at least, the Department of War is a secondary name, which means it can be used by officials in public and, for example, signage printed on stationery. But statutorily, the name is still the Department of Defense, and any official change would have to be approved by Congress.
Still, the nickname has caught on quickly in just a few days. The Pentagon’s official website, defense.gov, quickly changed to war.gov, and the social media handles and names for top U.S. defense accounts have changed as well. The Defense Media Activity, which handles the department’s websites, sports the new “Department of War” emblem on its homepage.
Additionally, the Pentagon’s top official, Pete Hegseth, now refers to himself as the secretary of war, and various titles for roles and organizations under his office have followed suit.
Defense One sent multiple requests to the Pentagon and Defense Information Systems Agency to get clarity on new guidance and policy. A DISA spokesperson said: “The Office of the Secretary War Public Affairs will handle all questions regarding name changes based on the executive order.” When asked if network, program, agency and command name changes were permanent or aliases, the Pentagon referred to the “executive order and to the Secretary’s comments. Beyond that we don’t have anything to offer you at this time.”
The executive order states: “All executive departments and agencies shall recognize and accommodate the use of such secondary titles in internal and external communications, provided that the use of such titles does not create confusion with respect to legal, statutory, or international obligations.”
Katie Arrington, who is performing the duties of the Pentagon’s chief information officer, used both names for the department during her keynote Thursday at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. But she emphasized the Department of War name change when intertwining talking points about the department’s mission, technology, and the emotional effects of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the anniversary of September 11.
“Yesterday was hard. I knew Charlie Kirk very well, because I was a former politician. And then, the impact of this morning and what today means. And why we are called now the Department of War is something I really want you all to understand. Senseless violence is not acceptable by Americans, full stop. End of story,” Arrington said. “The more that the world knows that I am lethal, I am deadly, and I am efficient, and you don’t want me to get mad. That is why we named it the Department of War, because the more that we are offensively postured and that we’re in a place so that people won’t do stupid things. That is why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
Arrington continued saying that more technology, such as the sensors and other infrastructure needed to create a domestic missile defense system concept known as Golden Dome, would also deter and warn of potential threats, such as the suspected shooter in Kirk’s death.
“If we have more sensors in the environments, would we be able to see a shooter on a roof? Yes. Where we need sensors in our environment, around the country, as we build out Golden Dome—that is left of boom. That is our world. But all of that is technology. All of that is computers and systems and networks talking to each other and micro-segments and having everything at the speed of relevance—not at the speed of a requirement, not at the speed of a budget.”
Changing a social media handle or a sign on a wall is relatively straightforward, but things are more tricky when talking about IT networks and tech initiatives that include “Department of Defense” in the name—particularly one as complex as the DODIN, which includes the telecommunications network called the Defense Information Systems Network.
A representative for the Billington event confirmed that the Pentagon requested references to the Department of Defense, including acronyms, be changed to the Department of War on its agenda. Paper materials reflected the traditional name and acronym. Organization names were also changed, including DCDC, which is called the Department of War Cyber Defense Command on the event website but not the command’s official website.
One such acronym is for a collection of networks DISA runs for defense agencies and field activities often referred to as the Fourth Estate. The agency has been consolidating and updating those networks as part of a program called the Department of Defense Network, or DODNet.
During a panel discussion on zero trust and DISA’s role in helping defense organizations meet the 2027 deadline, Michael Butler, the chief engineer for the program, referred to a collection of networks DISA runs for defense agencies as DOWNet. The event’s agenda also reflected the acronym change, but it kept the full name as Department of Defense Network.
“The frameworks are there, the capabilities are there, the technology is there. We’re ready to execute. So, bringing those capabilities when we’re taking D-O-W-Net—excuse me, it’s going to take a little time to adjust to that—ICAM, Thunderdome, defensive cyber operations. All those things bundled together to deliver…expanding our scope beyond just only the combat support agencies, but also the command commands and others, making those things available to them, and executing and implementing those technologies…Those are things that we already said, go ahead and actually do right now.”
The effort is still referred to as DODNet on DISA’s website.
