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For decades, Department of War planners have been asked to make strategic, resource-driven decisions with incomplete information, siloed tools, and disconnected systems. Anyone who has worked through a POM cycle or an urgent UFR scramble knows how often classified context lives on SIPRNet, while the actual planning is relegated to spreadsheets on NIPR — or worse, passed around in email attachments.
That gap is more than a workflow issue. It’s a barrier to mission alignment and risk to our national security.
I’ve seen firsthand how this disjointed reality hampers readiness, slows down modernization, and ultimately weakens our ability to posture effectively for great power competition. That's why I believe our recent IL6 certification and deployment on SIPRNet at Decision Lens represents far more than a compliance milestone — it’s a transformational capability for our Air and Space Forces.
Bridging the Divide Between Data and Decision
IL6 compliance enables the Air Force, Space Force, and other defense organizations to use Decision Lens within classified, cloud-based environments, allowing the entire pre-decisional planning process to happen in one secure domain.
That means you can now:
- Intake classified mission requirements and capability requests
- Evaluate programs and UFRs based on risk, readiness, and strategic alignment
- Run scenario models and tradeoff drills in real time
- Build a defensible, mission-aligned prioritization roadmap — from squadron to MAJCOM and from Airman or Guardian to capability.
For planners, that’s game-changing. For senior leaders, it’s the confidence that the decisions being made — and elevated — are based on complete, classified, and timely information.
Strategic Framing in the SIPRNet Era
One of the key benefits I’ve seen is how IL6 enables what we at Decision Lens call strategic framing. We help elevate the conversation from accounting to strategy — giving leadership the ability to translate tactical inputs into operationally and strategically meaningful outcomes.
Now that strategic framing can happen directly in SIPRNet. There’s no longer a need to downgrade inputs, build spreadsheets from memory, or move planning discussions to unclassified spaces that lack critical context.
This enables agile, data-driven decisions — and reduces the kinds of classification-based workarounds that introduce error, friction, and delay into the process.
Built for the Decisions That Matter
In my Air Force career, I saw how crucial it was to have clarity and agility when running drills, identifying disconnects, evaluating offsets, or building courses of action. Those needs haven’t changed. But now, with Decision Lens deployed on SIPRNet, the tools to meet those needs have caught up with the mission.
We’re supporting:
- UFR backlog planning at the Wing level
- Program prioritization for PEOs and PMs
- Scenario modeling and budget realignment for MAJCOMs
- Continuous planning and rollup to HAF with auditability and transparency
That’s not future capability — it’s live today, in use, and available to commands across the Air and Space Forces.
The Road Ahead
As new mandates from Congress and the executive branch aim to modernize the PPBE process, it's critical that technology not only keeps up but leads. IL6 compliance and SIPRNet deployment are critical steps in that journey — and just the beginning of what we believe modern decision intelligence can deliver for the Department of the Air Force.
To the commanders, resource managers, and planners working every day to connect strategy to execution: Decision Lens is here to help. And now, we can do it on SIPRNet — where the mission lives.
Brig. Gen. Jeremy Sloane (Ret.) is the Senior Vice President for Air and Space Force at Decision Lens with over three decades of operational and planning experience. Jeremy has deep experience in organizational leadership, operational and strategic planning, advanced warfighting concepts, military doctrine, and national security strategy.
