See, Gizmodo discovered that the military's email service doesn't use STARTTLS, because it would prevent the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) from screening each message for malware, phishing attempts and exploits. A letter from DISA, which oversees the military's emails, says its detection methods developed using national level intelligence "would be rendered ineffective if STARTTLS were enabled." To be able to implement the technology and make it a default feature, it would have to migrate to a "new email gateway infrastructure," and migration won't be done until July next year.

DISA has revealed its plans to migrate the military's email service in a letter addressed to Senator Ron Wyden, who questioned the agency for not using a "basic, widely used, easily enabled cybersecurity technology." Wyden said in a statement that the move is definitely a step in the right direction, but he's also pretty unhappy that it'll take DISA a year to migrate. "Protecting the communications of American servicemen and women should be a priority," he said, "so I hope the agency accelerates its timeline."