NCMS Project #: 142354
Problem: Traditional approaches to vehicle software development have not been able to keep pace with emerging cyber threats, advancements in technologies, and condensed business cycles without significant increases in development, production, and sustainment costs. For the military, new system developments with closed software and hardware architectures become obsolete by the time they are fielded and are not sustainable over a product lifecycle without significant cost and reinvestment. The expertise to develop Linux operating systems for military use and embedded systems is rare.
Benefit: As applicable, the U.S. Army will utilize lessons learned from this initiative to transition these tools and processes to improve maintenance and sustainment of software and hardware across other ground vehicles and weapon systems.
Solution/Approach: The intent of this initiative is to advance the state of the art in software development tools and processes to sustain a government-owned ground vehicle operating system in a manner that is cost effective and efficient and can be scaled across various product lines. Using the U.S. Army’s Abrams Main Battle Tank as a surrogate, this initiative seeks to pilot new advanced tools and processes using Development, Security, and Operation (DEVSECOPS), Agile, and advanced code resource environments to sustain a government-owned vehicle operating system in accordance with evolving Department of the Army mandates for Continuous Development, Integration, and Authority to Operate (CI/CD/ATO).
Impact on Warfighter:
- Enhance protection against cyber attacks
- Increase system interoperability and mission integration
- Improve reliability and readiness of software
- Decrease maintenance and sustainment costs
DOD Participation:
- U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) – Armaments Center
- Program Manager, Main Battle Tank Systems
Industry Participation:
- VES LLC
- NCMS
Benefit Area(s):
- Cost savings
- Repair turnaround time
- Mx avoidance & reliability
- Mx management improvement
- Improved readiness
- Reliability improvement
Mx Focus Area:
- Business IT and Analytics
