From the Editor-in-Chief do it right, and the various systems that rely on it. W
Alan Turing is credited with being the first person to come up with a theory for software, in 1935, which led to the two academic fields of computer science and software engineering. Te first independent company founded to provide software products and services was Computer Usage Company in 1955. Te software industry expanded in the early 1960s, almost immedi- ately after computers were first sold in mass-produced quantities to universities, government and business.
But it wasn’t until the commercial availability of the microprocessor—basically a computer on a single microchip—in 1971 that software transformed how we live. Today, software and the products it drives are ubiquitous in our daily lives. IPhones, cars, the computer I’m using now, even toasters all have a massive amount of software driving them. And the military—well, the unique and custom-designed products the Army Acquisition Workforce produces have more than most. Te venerable Abrams M1A2 System Enhanced Package version 3 main battle tank has an amazing amount of software with more than 1.4 million lines of code (and counting) driving it and its weapons systems. Let’s not even get into the arti- ficial intelligence, cyber, autonomy, space and other “Star Trek” (or “Star Wars”) items we have or are working on. Suffice it to say, we rely on software both to create and run our systems, and to maintain an overmatch with any near-peer competitor.
And, in a nutshell, that is why software acquisition, the rapid and iterative delivery of software capabil- ity to the user, is so vital. Just as important as the software itself are the funding streams provided by
elcome to the “dog days of summer” and another issue of Army AL&T. This issue focuses on software acquisition, how important it is to
Congress, regulations, contracting and the software acquisition path- way used to develop products.
All these issues and more are touched on in this edition: Learn about how the Army is apply- ing an Agile software system in the acquisition of new munitions, communications, and interoper- ability updates to High Mobility Artillery Rocket System; see how the Army is modifying its simula- tions program to keep pace with rapidly changing operational environment with the advent of modeling and simulation as a service and the challenges of migrating to this new paradigm. Finally, it’s all about modernization.
Email Nelson McCouch III @
armyalt@army.mil
We are at the perfect inflection point to make needed changes in numerous processes now. As I said at the beginning of this column, it’s important to get soft- ware acquisition right, and there is nobody better to hear from on that subject than the Army chief infor- mation officer, Raj Iyer, Ph.D. Turn to his article on Page 8 and find out what he sees as the challenges and risks are for the future of software acquisition. Finally, it’s déjà vu all over again. Read “Ten and Now: Before Software, Tere Were Computers,” Page 114, to learn about how the Army’s need for calculations led to the computer industry and its evolution from the first antiquated mechanical computers and firing- table calculations to today’s simplified streamlining of services and pathway to software acquisition—inter- esting reading!
As always, comments, complaints and especially article submissions are always welcome. Please contact us at
armyalt@army.mil. We look forward to hearing from you.
Nelson McCouch III Editor-in-Chief
https://asc.ar my.mil
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