Army identifying which programs will implement new data architecture

WASHINGTON — The Army is working through its implementation plan for its Unified Data Reference Architecture (UDRA), the service’s new framework for simplifying data collection, and choosing which programs will be the first to implement it, a service official said today. It’s also planning a new “innovation exchange” for industry by next month.

“That [implementation plan] does a few things for us. Number one, it helps us to make sure that the UDRA, as it stands today, is what we want it to be. Number two, it allows us to begin doing some [program of record] integration.” Jen Swanson, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for data, engineering and software, said today at an AFCEA Army IT Day event.

“So we want to get after being able to determine, with our current programs of record, which ones can we maybe start migrating,” she added. “Maybe not to all of this. Maybe we’re not going to comply with every single thing in today’s program of record immediately. But I think we can start taking credit for some of these things this year.”

The Army has completed several early tasks related to UDRA’s implemenation plan and is, overall, more than halfway done, according to Swanson’s presentation. Now a 100-day plan is currently underway to identify which specific programs will begin implementing the architecture.

Swanson said that when the Army completed its design for UDRA, the service had simplified the architecture from 14 services to six services, including data product production, orchestration, consumption and access management.

The UDRA is meant to allow the service to build out a data “mesh,” a decentralized data architecture approach where “data product ownership and responsibility are distributed across different domains, teams and individuals within an organization,” according to the Army. 

Swanson added that the service just soft-launched its cloud-based “innovation exchange” at US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. In April last year, she said the innovation exchange will be open to all industry vendors to test solutions for UDRA and guide the Army on how to gather and distribute data to its corps level and higher. 

“So it is up, but not completely available to everybody because … we want to make sure before we open it up to everybody that we have our processes straight and, you know, it’s going to be efficient and effective,” Swanson said today. “So we anticipate, really, I would say a full launch in the next month.”

The Army is also currently developing a risk management framework for Project Linchpin, the service’s first program of record to help build out a trusted artificial intelligence/machine learning pipeline, Swanson said. Through the program, the Army wants to develop an AI/ML operations “environment” for its intelligence, cyber and electronic warfare sensor systems. 

The risk management framework will help the Army “determine how much testing is enough,” Swanson said. “And it really depends on, I would say, risk versus consequence, right? Where is your model, who’s using it, where’s your data coming from? And then that helps us determine how much testing we really have to do and the tenets that they are helping us to flush out are going to really shape how we do this across [acquisition, logistics, and technology] writ large.” 

In November 2023, the Army started asking industry how to address potential vulnerabilities in the AI supply chain for Project Linchpin. Earlier in September, Booz Allen Hamilton and Red Hat were awarded a contract to help support research efforts for the program. The service plans to start awarding contracts in March or April this year for the effort.