Cyber Fortress 2025: AI-Enabled Edge & Cyber Resilience

Each year, Cyber Fortress unites military, industry, and academic partners to strengthen Virginia’s defenses against cyber and physical threats to critical infrastructure. In 2025, the exercise simulated a coordinated attack on the state’s power grid — testing real-world readiness in contested environments where communications and energy systems were degraded or denied.

In this GovExec TV special, we go behind the scenes with the Virginia Army National Guard, GDIT, and AWS to explore how advanced technologies are shaping mission resilience. A centerpiece of the exercise was GDIT’s Defense Operations Grid-Mesh Accelerator (DOGMA) — an AI-powered solution originally built for national security missions. Paired with AWS cloud infrastructure, DOGMA processed data at the tactical edge in real time to enable aerial threat detection, cyber-physical coordination, and rapid decision-making.