“We put out our second draft on Friday; the deadline for feedback is Oct. 25, so you have about a week and a half left,” software acquisition chief Jennifer Swanson told contractors at AUSA. “Please, please give us feedback.”
As her signature “Open DAGIR” initiative seeks to bring in smaller, innovative software firms, “we’ve got to be a lot more explicit” in contracting language to protect their intellectual property and data rights, said Chief Digital & AI Officer Radha Plumb.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
The 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing is modeling a new approach to electronic warfare for all the services: Instead of traditional quarterly updates, the 350th can now update over 30 Air Force systems about new threats within three hours.
As the Defense Department and Congress strive to streamline clumsy Authorization To Operate (ATO) procedures for software, the Pentagon also needs more computing infrastructure to test and experiment with new code.
A recent CENTCOM exercise featured real-time software development, rolling out updates in hours or days, writes CENTCOM Chief Technology Officer Schuyler Moore.
The development and testing processes enabled by the new software environment will be game-changing, because in the end it will allow "satellites to be upgraded in space," SAIC's vice president for space, David Ray, told Breaking Defense.
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
The Army has nixed future "Capability Set" upgrade packages for brigade networks in favor of smaller, more frequent updates, with the most complex technology reserved for division and corps HQs.
The GAO reviewed 39 MDAPs and MTA programs and found that most of the programs that reported using a modern software development approach actually deliver working software for user feedback slower than recommended.
The software factory ecosystem is one of the three major objectives outlined in DoD’s new software modernization strategy, recently approved by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
The agreement will pave the way for closer collaboration between Kessel Run and Air Combat Command, officials said.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
"Believe it or not, we found that the primary barriers to being able to field the software tools are bureaucratic, said Heather Penney of the Mitchell Institute.
After just three years, there are now 200 teams across DoD doing DevSecOps, which has saved, on average, a year and $12.5 million per app it’s been used to launch, the Air Force's Chief Software Officer says. When you consider the number of apps, that's significant. And now there's a push to make DevSecOps resources available to JADC2.
The demonstration, dubbed Project Hydra, was partially funded by the Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency, says Lockheed Martin's Dan Markham.
Combining agile software development with product management is the secret weapon that can help the DoD maintain America’s innovation advantage — and protect its global preeminence.