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Army swears in new acquisition leader Brent Ingraham  

Most recently Ingraham was performing the duties of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment.

Army aims for final draft of software mega-contract by Nov. 7

“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.”

AI ASAP: Army wants OSD’s help to speed algorithm acquisition

“I can train algorithms literally overnight,” said Young Bang, the No. 2 civilian in Army acquisition — so even the streamlined Software Acquisition Pathway might not be fast enough.

After industry pushback, Army pledges to revise software acquisition – up to a point

"If some companies don't want to bid on a contract, it's a free country. Don't bid. Others will," Doug Bush said. "My goal is simply to get the capability for the Army, not to make everybody happy."

Break and counter: Army’s 500-day artificial intelligence plan to include new testing, defense

The service previously announced another initiative, dubbed #DefendAI, all of which are shaping its year-long dive into the cutting-edge tech.

Army teases pilot generative AI program to start in July

One of the hopeful uses of the new LLM is for the government to create contracts at a quicker rate.

DefendAI: Army wants industry help with safety testing for artificial intelligence

The Army presented a conceptual security plan that involves layers of security for AI use, but wants help ironing out the details.

‘AI-BOM’ bombs: Army backs off, will demand less detailed data from AI vendors

Instead of demanding an exhaustive “AI Bill of Materials.” the Army will only ask contractors for a “baseball card” of key stats on their AI — while building up its in-house capacity to check for bad code or “poisoned” data.

‘Poisoned’ data could wreck AIs in wartime, warns Army software acquisition chief

“Any commercial LLM that is out there, that is learning from the internet, is poisoned today,” Jennifer Swanson said, “but our main concern [is] those algorithms that are going to be informing battlefield decisions.”

DSEI 2023 recap: From drones to GCAP, views from either side of the pond

Breaking Defense's European Bureau Chief Tim Martin and naval warfare reporter Justin Katz chat about the biggest DSEI news from London this week.

Army reorganizing program offices for network and cyber ops, UAVs may be next: Officials

The way the historic PEO organizations were initially set up was “for a reason,” but now the Army is modernizing, and the shift is needed to support its unified network, Young Bang said.

‘Like Netflix’: After slow start, Army aims to ‘drastically’ accelerate software updates

Today, just nine of the Army’s 540 acquisition programs use the streamlined Software Pathway, but senior officials told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview they aim to "exponentially" increase that number by the end of next year.

Army acquisition chief ‘not uncomfortable’ with US stockpiles, considers multi-year deals

Doug Bush laid out multiple avenues for keeping US stockpiles intact while keeping Ukraine armed for its battle against Russia, including potential industry incentives and getting help from America's friends.

Army ‘encouraged’ by IVAS test despite ‘challenges,’ FLRAA decision may come in October

"I think there's further work to do to improve the system. But we saw a lot of positive things as a test," the Army's top acquisition official said of IVAS, before separately noting a potential delay in a major future helicopter program contract.