John Garstka

Director of Cyber, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment

U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)

John Garstka, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Deputy Director for Cyber Programs within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, Cyber & Business Systems; Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. His current responsibilities include oversight of the development and acquisition of capabilities for cyberspace operations and the oversight of DoD Platform Resilience efforts.

Mr. Garstka began his career as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was commissioned in 1983 after graduating as a Distinguished Graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a BS in Mathematics. He served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force for 10 years and in the U.S. Air Force Reserve for 15 years.

He has an extensive background in systems engineering, mission analysis, and capability development for space, communications, networking, and cyber capabilities. His experience includes material solution analysis for space surveillance systems, communications satellites, unmanned aerial systems communications, airborne networking, cyber ranges, and capabilities for cyber situational awareness. As an operations research analyst he conducted force structure analysis for the Air Force Officer Force and the Air Force Acquisition Workforce.

He has written and spoken extensively on the topics of network-centric warfare, warfighting innovation, and defense transformation.

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