26
January 2023
Past Event
Software Defines Tactics: Fielding Transformational Capability without Transforming Acquisition

Event will air on this page.

Software Defines Tactics: Fielding Transformational Capability without Transforming Acquisition

Past Event
Hudson Institute
January 26, 2023
Software Defines Tactics
Caption
An employee of the company EnterVR uses the training simulator VR Shield by the company on the first day of the ITEC fair for military and weapons technology in Stuttgart, Germany, on May 15, 2018.
26
January 2023
Past Event

Event will air on this page.

Speakers:
James Geurts

Executive Vice Chairman, Sarcos Technology and Robotics and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition

dan_patt
Dan Patt

Senior Fellow, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology

bryan_clark
Bryan Clark

Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology

Key Takeaways

 

1. Currently, military-technical competitive advantage is driven more by software, data, and artificial intelligence and the new tactics they enable than by bent metal and physics. Software is the glue that binds our military professionals and systems together, and digital data increasingly defines the loop between development and operations.

2. The Department of Defense needs to allocate resources and manage programs in ways that recognize the central role of software—not legacy ships, aircraft, and vehicles—in controlling the speed and efficacy of modern kill chains and imposing military dilemmas.

3. Acquisition leaders can lead this change without overhauling law or regulation by building organizations and pipelines that can change code change quickly and securely, dividing complex software development efforts into manageable chunks that remain interoperable, and infusing projects with digital talent, security practices, ongoing learning and improvement, and user feedback.

 

 

View Transcript

A decade ago venture capitalist Marc Andreessen argued that software was eating the world. Today the US military is wrestling with that reality as defense systems, like consumer electronics, increasingly derive their capability from algorithms and digital data. But exploiting the opportunities in software-derived capabilities will require the Pentagon to move beyond its industrial model of acquisition to embrace new approaches that enable integrating development and operations through a program’s lifetime.

Please join Hudson Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt for a discussion on the new Hudson report Software Defines Tactics and how the Pentagon can field software-defined capabilities without waiting for acquisition reform. The panel will include former DoD Chief Software Officer Jason Weiss and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy James “Hondo” Geurts.

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