Leaders Tackle Speed of Technology Delivery at Cyber Conference

As the Department of the Air Force works to build a more connected and resilient Battle Network, military and industry leaders focused on one central challenge: how to move capability to the warfighter faster during a panel at the Air and Space Forces Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Sept. 15.

The "Next-Generation Battle Management" panel brought together Elaine Bitonti of Collins Aerospace; retired Maj. Gen. Scott Jobe with Boeing; retired Col. Sean Lowe with SAIC; and retired Maj. Luke Savoie with Elbit America. Brig. Gen. Joshua Williams, the Department of the Air Force portfolio acquisition executive for Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management, moderated the panel.

Williams opened by emphasizing the need to move beyond systems that operate independently of one another.

"The Department of the Air Force will not accept business models built on closed software stacks, black box hardware or restricted data interfaces," Williams said. "The government must own and govern the technical baseline to ensure rapid iterative upgrades."

For Savoie, that openness must extend from architecture to technology operating at the edge of the fight.

"How do you solve the compute portion on the edge, so that these tools and the connected network is working further and further forward and faster and faster within the loop of the folks that are on the front edge?" Savoie asked.

Bitonti connected that challenge directly to the movement of data across the force.

"I think first, you know, we understand from a battle management perspective, it's all about how we're moving the data," Bitonti said, explaining that separating software from hardware and creating flexible communications architectures can allow systems to adapt as new requirements emerge.

That flexibility, the panelists agreed, is only useful if the DAF can test and field new capabilities quickly.

"One of the keys I think for the government is rapid prototyping, demonstrations and ensuring that we have industry partnerships," Jobe said. "In order to really prove it to the DAF Battle Network or to the Joint Force, you got to go out there and demonstrate it, show that it's real."

Jobe pointed to a recent example in which an AMRAAM was launched from an MQ-28 Ghost Bat and integrated with an E-7 Wedgetail and F/A-18 Hornet within nine months.

"So that's one example of the many things we're doing and the rapid prototyping and getting to the field to demonstrate capabilities," Jobe said.

The panel then turned to one of the biggest barriers between development and operational use: testing, security and accreditation.

Lowe described a process where software can move through development, security compliance, developmental testing and operational testing in sequence, with each transition potentially adding weeks or months.

"This is how you get months and years of delay," Lowe said. He pointed to an approach where developmental and operational testers work alongside developers, allowing changes to be identified and addressed much earlier. "By putting the DTOT folks in the right places, particularly with the developmental teams, we can accelerate this."

"The ATO process is … one, it's out of control of most of the people in program office, and when you get to it, it does bring everything to a screeching halt," Savoie said, calling for a broader examination of cybersecurity, information technology security and accreditation processes.

Jobe similarly pointed to the security environment as an area where policy and decision-making could move faster.

"I think we could probably move a lot faster," Jobe said. "Maybe some communication and education to the personnel that are inside the acquisition system might be beneficial."

For Bitonti, data sharing between services and coalition partners presents another policy challenge.

"We talk about really wanting to operate as a joint force and also with our coalition partners, but there are multiple restrictions, policy restrictions on rule sets of what data we can and can't share," she said.

"At this point, it's not actually a technological impediment that is causing some of our struggles sharing data. It's policy impediments."

As the panel closed, Williams brought the discussion back to the DAF's responsibility to deliver capability at the pace required by an evolving fight.

"Acquisition is a warfighting function," Williams said. "We must deliver open, resilient, software-driven capability at the speed of operational relevance."