08 February 2022 – For the first time since the ‘pandemic public health and travel restrictions’ began, the Strategic Implementation Office (SIO) met in person to review the Target Operating Model (TOM) submission, which they prepared for the Saudi Ministry of Defense. The SIO is the combined Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA Center) and Saudi Armed Forces Command and Staff College design team. It began work in 2019 as the pandemic set in, and over the last two years, it has completed a baseline assessment, best practices benchmarking, and initial and final design phases of the program. The completed TOM provides the Saudi Ministry of Defense with a comprehensive way ahead for establishing the Saudi Arabia National Defense University (SANDU), which is widely regarded as the most critical part of the wider Defense Transformation initiative.