Write as We Fight

Write as We Fight

If the boots-on-the-ground community is urged to “train as you fight,” the technology community that supports warfighters must similarly be urged to code as we fight—not as a set of scattered assembly lines, but as a robust, responsive network.

During a combat operation, a new coalition sensor becomes available that could help exploit an enemy’s vulnerability if it can be quickly integrated into the common operating environment. Within hours, engineers access the source code, coordinating with a community of programmers who review and bug-test modifications.

Days later, the command interface has been modified to import data from the new sensor. Missions are more successful, and there is unprecedented coordination with coalition forces, because the commander can implement the same software, minus a few classified modules, on the coalition network.

An open technology acquisitions strategy, including accessible source code, makes this scenario possible. Unfortunately, this kind of technological responsiveness and agility is all but impossible today, because much of the Department of Defense’s software, which is central to its operations, is bound up in proprietary systems. These “black boxes” cannot be accessed or modified by anyone but the original vendor, even though DoD nominally has rights to millions of lines of code that have cost billions of dollars to develop.