🧑🏻💻 A holistic approach to software development and acquisition
It’ll take more than just updated policies for the Pentagon to get software right.
Welcome back to the Nexus Newsletter, Applied Intuition Defense’s newsletter covering the latest in national security, autonomy, and software-defined warfare.
In today’s newsletter, we recap our episode of The Road to Autonomy, offer some thoughts on the Department of Defense’s software development and acquisition, and more.
🚗 Applied Intuition x The Road to Autonomy
Applied Intuition Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Peter Ludwig and Applied Intuition Defense General Manager Jason Brown this month were featured on The Road to Autonomy podcast, where they discussed everything from how Applied got started in defense, the EpiSci acquisition, our plans for maritime and aerial autonomy, and more.
💭 Thought bubble: the Pentagon’s approach to software development and acquisition
In The Road to Autonomy episode, Jason talked about how software modernization for the DOD is no longer optional — it’s a necessity.
“It’s not even a matter of choice, it’s a matter of competitive advantage. The hard part is making the investment, dealing with the policy issues that kind of restrict how software is procured, and then just dealing with a lot of the cultural issues internally to the Department [of Defense]. That’s what the challenge is going to be. That’s what the challenge has been for a number of years. But there’s real progress happening right now.”
It’s essential for the Pentagon to improve how it handles and procures software in order to maintain a competitive edge. Jason’s statement highlights the hurdles the DOD currently faces when it comes to software:
Modernization requires significant investment and strategic commitment
Existing policies make it hard to buy, develop, and implement software quickly and efficiently, stifling innovation
Internal cultural resistance within the DOD is real. The Pentagon has had long-standing bureaucratic processes that have made it difficult to adapt to the past-faced nature of modern software development.
However, DOD is moving in the right direction. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s software acquisition memo, which directs expanded use of the Software Acquisition Pathway, is a good step – if it’s enforced. (Last September during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Peter urged program managers to aggressively expand the use of the Software Acquisition Pathway.)
However, true progress is going to require more than just updated policies. In a recent interview with Defense News, Jason talked about how the DOD, in order to truly support software development and acquisition, will need a comprehensive approach that includes reforming funding structures, test and evaluation, and workforce training programs.
“Test and evaluation needs to be completely reworked,” he said. “It’s not feasible for the current, very bureaucratic, slow, cumbersome test and evaluation methodologies to also be applied to software. I think everybody recognizes that — even the test and evaluation community — the question is, what are they going to do about it and how do we get there?”
A new report from the Atlantic Council’s Software-Defined Warfare Commission echoed Jason’s statement. The authors of the report urge the Pentagon to modernize its test and evaluation infrastructure and enforce a commercial-first approach to buying software.
🔍 Hudson Institute
ICYMI: EpiSci President Dan Javorsek was featured on a panel at the Hudson Institute this morning on “Fully Exploiting Autonomous Military Systems.” The discussion ranged from the evolution of military autonomy towards the 2030s, how adversaries are incorporating autonomous technologies into their military systems, and the DOD’s approach to gather and process data to support AI-enabled autonomy efforts.
Speaking about commercial integration into the Pentagon, Dan said:
“The government has been saying that they want to leverage commercial for over a decade and, yet, VC-backed companies haven’t really penetrated into the defense market much. Why is that? It’s because we haven’t been thinking about leveraging commercial the right way, which is to minimally modify a commercial stack and then rapidly iterate that in the environment.”
🏇 The Parthian Shot
Breaking Defense | Boeing wins Air Force contract for NGAD next-gen fighter, dubbed F-47
Key quote: “The aerospace giant’s victory in the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program is a game-changer for Boeing, whose defense business has suffered billions of dollars in losses in recent years stemming from a series of ill-performing fixed-price contracts. In particular, the win gives Boeing the opportunity to build a new fighter jet at a time when its F/A-18 line is nearing closure, a major lifeline for the company’s St. Louis facility.”
Our take: Let’s be real—all big defense companies have records of what Former Secretary Kendall referred to as “acquisition malpractice”. For decades, we have sustained the very system that made these results inevitable. It’s convenient, perhaps dishonest, to point the finger only at Boeing after its big win. Regardless of who won, there would always be enormous scrutiny on this program, and we think that’s great.
We also believe that the F-47 isn’t a killshot. Investment in F-35 upgrades and the Collaborative Combat Aircraft will continue in stride as the F-47 is developed. At the end of the day, these platforms, each produced by different primes, will need to work together. Enter non-traditional software companies with deep expertise in collaborative autonomy.