THE IMPERATIVE

Over the last decade, commercial industry has made radical shifts in how it manages the software life cycle from requirements through support fueled by digital transformation and new technologies, such as cloud computing and development paradigms like DevSecOps. The way we budget for the software life cycle follows this waterfall approach whereby we budget using research, development, test and evaluation funds for development and testing, other procurement, Army, funding to procure hardware and software, and, finally, using operations and maintenance, Army, funds for sustainment. TEST AND EVALUATION FOR SOFTWARE Software that is embedded in weapon systems are required to go through extensive test and evaluation activities- developmental testing, independent operational testing, interoperability testing, Section 508 testing; and various certifications such as Army interoperability certification, before the software can be deployed into the weapon system platform. For tactical systems and deployments, leveraging modeling and simulation tools, virtual testbeds or even digital twins is how the Army can reduce the need for test and evaluation on physical platforms.