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OODA Network Member Chris Ward first reported DoD frameworks for innovation back in December 2020, with her analysis of the Air Force’s role in the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). In it she wrote: “The Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) is perhaps the most important program in DoD today. The Air Force plays a particularly important role in developing the JADC2 concept. They have been designated as the Executive Agent. That means they will have major input into how the framework is shaped. Their work will influence every sensor, shooter, and network advance the Department of Defense puts forward for the next decade.
Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) is the architecture approach they are using to flush out the JADC2 concept. Through a carefully structured series of events, they are developing the standards that will enable current and future weapon systems and networks to migrate to a JADC2/Joint All Domain Operations environment.
Careful examination of this might not look like anything new. But the big takeaway is this: the JADC2/ABMS architecture approach acknowledges, up front, that you can never really define the requirements in advance. Existing warfighting capabilities have always started with a rigorous requirements definition phase. That’s how DoD ensures that taxpayers get their money’s worth and weapons systems are only built to fill warfighting needs. These requirements are flushed out throughout the chain of command, so the most important need is funded first.”
In retrospect, Ward was close to prophetic in her analysis of the real challenge ahead for the DoD and AF:
“The problem with that approach becomes evident when you see how rapidly things are changing. We are moving from a world of stand-alone point-to-point capabilities to one where every sensor is connected, sensors are everywhere, mountains of data is collected, and analyzing this data to make a decision is overwhelming. Add to the mix a new host of new unmanned systems, operating either individually or in swarms, and you see how the “requirements up front” model breaks down. What we need tomorrow could be fundamentally different from what we can envision today.”
As early as the time Ward was writing on the JADC2 in late 2020, there was the growing traction and influence, within the AF technology community, of two papers by Dr. Will Roper, who at the time was the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics. In October 2020 and January 2021, respectively, Dr. Ropper authored two papers on digital engineering and acquisition – “There is No Spoon:_The New Digital Acquisition Reality and Bending the Spoon_GUIDEBOOK for DIGITAL ENGINEERING and e-SERIES. Yes, the titles are Matrix references. The latter report also included the Latin tagline on its cover “Dicula Nulla Est.”
Source: af.mil
“We have to make sure we’re not being cavalier with our data protection, but at the same time, we have to increase our velocity; we just do.”
Under the auspices of The Office of the Chief Software Officer, Assistant Secretary of Acquisition, Air Force software factories are an Air Force Software Ecosystem: multiple platform hubs, but all one platform. In a recent press release, the Air Force Research Laboratory, including a statement from software factory lead Matthew Jacobsen, provided some much-needed context:
“The factories…are [Air Force Chief Software Officer Nick Chaillan’s] legacy, as are Platform One and Cloud One,” Jacobsen said. “I come from a background in commercial software engineering. That’s where I cut my teeth, and the rate of change inside the fence can be very frustrating by comparison. And not just the rate of change but the barriers—the compliance barriers. You have innovators, and you have compliers; it’s difficult to reconcile those two. We have to make sure we’re not being cavalier with our data protection, but at the same time, we have to increase our velocity; we just do.”
Chaillan abruptly left his role as Chief Software Officer on September 2, 2021, citing disappointment with Air Force software development. “I think that Mr. Chaillan saw a lot of potential in the cloud, DevSecOps, and Agile space, and, ultimately, we see his departure as, what will hopefully be, a forcing function for Air Force leadership and DOD leadership to change how they mean to address this problem.
One challenge area, Jacobsen said, is that many data and software projects are led by and consist of expert scientists and engineers who admittedly don’t sufficiently understand the data and software domain, which could eventually cause programs to be overly time-consuming, expensive and, in some cases, not successful.
“So we said, ‘Let’s move fast to start creating and delivering tools and capabilities.’ There’s a big push for digital engineering in the Air Force. That’s a very good thing, but there are some foundational elements that are needed. You need robust environments for technology delivery, and you need pipelines for the data to be generated, to ensure that it is adequately curated, discoverable and reusable. You also need what we refer to as DevSecOps and Agile capabilities that help drive higher rates of success on digital initiatives.”
Source: af.mil
The chief software officer for the Air Force recently designated Hangar 18 as a Department of the Air Force software factory.
Hangar 18 joins 16 other Department of the Air Force software factories—including the first, Kessel Run [founded in 2017]—that have sprung up across the nation since the Air Force began its digital transformation efforts in 2017. These efforts were initially driven by the release of the Air Force Science and Technology Strategy for 2030, released in 2017, and then influenced by the digital engineering initiative laid out by Dr. Will Roper, former assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics.
Matthew Jacobsen, director of Hangar 18, cited Roper’s articles “There is no spoon” and “Bending the spoon” as significant in the formation of the software factories and Hangar 18’s charter. (1)
“The decision cycle (the OODA loop) will continue to shrink as future conflicts require decisions in minutes or even seconds.”
“With OODA loops now tightening to knots beyond human involvement, streaming data management, algorithm training, and software design become all-important safeties and triggers for auto-firing our own digital magazine.”
Interestingly, both OODA’s Chris Wood and Dr. Roper addressed the role of a tightening OODA Loop in this period of innovation.
From Ward’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2): Perhaps the most important program in DoD today, (November 2020):
“Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines (and now Space Force) recognize how important it is to fight seamlessly as a Joint Force. The integrating tactics and technologies, however, have long been tailored to service specific needs. With the recent deluge of unmanned systems, this is getting much more complicated. From this was born the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). JADC2 will be the single DoD network – the one to rule them all. It’s a monumental effort and the impacts for organizations and companies cannot be underestimated.
Cloud-like environments are essential if a Joint force expects to be able to share intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data quickly. Single-pipe networks, with the inevitable interfaces and hangers-on, won’t allow data to get where it’s needed fast enough. When everything is a sensor, every sensor is connected, and even weapons (kinetic and non-kinetic) ride across the networks, it’s critical that JADC2 be done correctly. As our adversaries perfect their ability to disrupt our access to this critical infrastructure, we see our military advantages slip away. DoD’s Joint All Domain Operations (JADO) concept addresses the importance of countering Anti-access Area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities and maintaining an all-domain access capability.”
From Dr. Roper, in his There is No Spoon:_The New Digital Acquisition Reality (October 2020):
Fortunately, K8s [Kubernetes] allows us to isolate safety-critical functions from mission-critical — making when, where, and how we use AI an operational choice unlimited by design. But to keep our digital magazine full, we must understand — and keep up with — these rapidly-evolving software technologies.
We can get everything right in the base layers of the tech stack — cloudOne and platformOne — and still fail to get useable data, code, analytics, and AI to the edge — where it matters — if (i) our software development and deployment environments are not container-native now, and whatever comes after it in future; (ii) our data architecture, not designed for data streams and stream processing applications; (iii) our functions, applications, and services, not in scalable, enterprise-wide architectures rather than stovepipes; (iv) our networks and radios, not software-defined; and (v) our edge, not optimized for generalized compute
and storage.
There’s a lot to get right for an IoT.mil! But once we do, applying good DevSecOps principles — and innovating towards Dev*Ops — will warp software- and data-enabled “Kung Fu” right into our warfighters’ hands. To achieve the second principle of digital acquisition, “Crawl. Run. Warp!” is our new software motto — crawl-to-run via Dev*Ops and run-to-warp via an IoT.mil.”
“…seven months from beta testing through the mothballing of a mission-critical, 20-year-old legacy system. Impressive.”
Kessel Run: Code. Deploy. Win. As first reported by Breaking Defense in October 2021:
“Kessel Run is the operational name for Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC)’s Detachment 12. Its mission is to deliver combat capabilities warfighters love and revolutionize the Air Force software acquisition process. From its headquarters at Hanscom Air Force Base and with significant supporting assets in Boston, MA (Kessel Run Experimental Lab – KREL) and Langley AFB, KR builds, tests, delivers, operates, and maintains cloud-based infrastructure and war-fighting software applications for use by Airmen worldwide and delivers them on time, as needed and with efficiency and cost-effectiveness above other acquisition methods or practices in the Air Force and Department of Defense.
Since then, it has created multiple applications for the service’s air operations centers, including Jigsaw, a planning app for tanker operations, and Slapshot, which is used to build the master air attack plan that tasks aircraft with daily operations.
That is seven months from beta testing through the mothballing of a mission-critical, 20-year-old legacy system. Impressive. The KRADOS system was approved in April 2021 and is slated to completely replace the legacy TBMCS at two dozen global Air Operations Centers (AOC).
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About the Author
Daniel Pereira is research director at OODA. He is a foresight strategist, creative technologist, and an information communication technology (ICT) and digital media researcher with 20+ years of experience directing public/private partnerships and strategic innovation initiatives.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence