The Air Force is Kneecapping Software Innovation : War on the Rocks , October 21 , 2025
October 21, 2025
War on the Rocks
The Air Force is Kneecapping Software Innovation : War on the Rocks , October 21 , 2025
October 21, 2025
War on the Rocks
From the document: "The Department of the Air Force chief information officer announced a new policy change by sharing a post from a contractor, with the tag, “Strategic shift, operational clarity.”
It is neither.
The Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act directed the secretary of defense to task the Defense Innovation Board “to undertake a study on streamlining software development and acquisition regulations.”
The subsequent Software Acquisition and Practices Study was a fulcrum moment for the defense industrial base. Delivered in May 2019, the report made the case that “software is different than hardware (and not all software is the same).” It reoriented the department around “prioritizing speed as the critical metric…and purchasing existing commercial software whenever possible.” It was taken as a clarion call to change the acquisition enterprise to more closely resemble the ways of building, buying, and consuming modern software.
And from the earliest days, the Department of the Air Force has led the charge.
Air Force digital leaders were the first to issue continuous authorizations to operate, the first to stand up a software factory that put active duty servicemembers alongside industry developers to create software (Kessel Run, also known as Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Detachment 12), and the first to create department-wide shared cloud environments. Along the way, the Air Force threw open its front doors, pioneering the use of the Small Business Innovation Research Open Topics and Direct-to-Phase-II awards, allowing industry partners and new startups with commercially viable products and demonstrated end-user interest to kick off pilots that could eventually transition to scaled deployments and even programs of record."
Authors - Sheinbaum, NoahSubjects
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