Key Takeaways
1. Currently, military-technical competitive advantage is driven more by software, data, and artificial intelligence and the new tactics they enable than by bent metal and physics. Software is the glue that binds our military professionals and systems together, and digital data increasingly defines the loop between development and operations.
2. The Department of Defense needs to allocate resources and manage programs in ways that recognize the central role of software—not legacy ships, aircraft, and vehicles—in controlling the speed and efficacy of modern kill chains and imposing military dilemmas.
3. Acquisition leaders can lead this change without overhauling law or regulation by building organizations and pipelines that can change code change quickly and securely, dividing complex software development efforts into manageable chunks that remain interoperable, and infusing projects with digital talent, security practices, ongoing learning and improvement, and user feedback.
A decade ago venture capitalist Marc Andreessen argued that software was eating the world. Today the US military is wrestling with that reality as defense systems, like consumer electronics, increasingly derive their capability from algorithms and digital data. But exploiting the opportunities in software-derived capabilities will require the Pentagon to move beyond its industrial model of acquisition to embrace new approaches that enable integrating development and operations through a program’s lifetime.
Please join Hudson Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt for a discussion on the new Hudson report Software Defines Tactics and how the Pentagon can field software-defined capabilities without waiting for acquisition reform. The panel will include former DoD Chief Software Officer Jason Weiss and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy James “Hondo” Geurts.
Join Hudson Institute for a conference with leaders from industry, government, academia, and defense to discuss the latest developments in the US-China AI competition.
Join House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (AL-03) for a fireside discussion with Senior Fellow Nadia Schadlow on Congress’s role in revitalizing America’s defense industrial base.
Please join Hudson Institute for a special address on the current state-of-play by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will join remotely, followed by a question-and-answer session on the war with Hudson Institute President and CEO John Walters.
Bill Frauenhofer, executive director for semiconductor investment and innovation at the US Department of Commerce, will join Hudson Institute Senior Fellow David Feith for an invitation-only fireside chat on semiconductor onshoring and the role of government capital in strengthening America’s technological and industrial leadership.
