Mobile applications and devices will become increasingly critical to meeting the needs of warfighters who are producing and consuming information in combat zones, said an official from the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).

A first step toward realizing an apps model is making situational awarenes systems used at the edge of connectivity, such as Command Post of the Future (CPOF) and Battle Command, more customizable, said Michael Anthony, chief of Advanced Applications Branch at CERDEC, during a blogger roundtable on August 25.

CPOF now allows third parties to create enhancements through a software developer's kit, Anthony said. Any developer can follow Project Management Battle Command's process to add new capabilities into CPOF much more quickly than with traditional acquisition, he added.

"Today's warfighters are facing an ever-changing, ever-adapting, ever-evolving enemy. And we need to be able to adapt if not as fast, or faster than the enemy. And to put it bluntly, our traditional process, the DOD 5000 process, does not necessarily enable this, at least for software," said Anthony.

"So we believe by allowing or decentralizing some of this ability to create solutions to meet the immediate needs of warfighters, and then creating an environment to share that across the organization, we'll realize a greater return on taxpayer dollar. So not only will we be able to meet our servicemen and women's immediate needs, we'll also be able to achieve this in a total cost of ownership--at a lower total cost of ownership," said Anthony.

When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed and deployed the Tactical Ground Reporting system (TIGR), an edge-enabled system, it did not follow the traditional DoD 5000 model, explained Anthony. It was "put in front of soldiers in a very fast, iterative process in theater, enhanced based on direct warfighter feedback."

"The DoD 5000, you know, is an incredible model when you're building a major system, a plane, a tank, a battleship" said Anthony. He said that, although the process takes time, it also covers important bases in security and accreditation.

"I'm not sure if it warrants a significant change to the policy or some sort of additional guidance," said Anthony. "Some of the PMs are leaning forward to, you know, not only enhance this but see how this type of process can work within their own system or program of record."

This focus on providing access to edge-enabled systems builds upon Army CIO and G6, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson's interest in creating an app-enabled Army. On August 10, Sorenson said an acquisition decision memorandum that would define mobile application specs for operating environment, standardize configuration and cybersecurity architecture would be released by the end of August.

Anthony said an ADM along those lines has not been released yet, but the Army is actively pursuing that model and putting together the accreditation process. "I think the programs of record are all working aggressively to ensure that they can leverage, exploit and harvest some of the innovation that we believe the Army's going to--or at least this technology will--enable the Army to spread across the enterprise," said Anthony.

For more:
- listen to the DoDLive roundtable

Related Articles:
Sorenson: Army should emulate apps model
Sorenson: Army should emulate Apple
Army's research command looks to Apple, too
Army General: Too soon to abandon manual processes
Computer network warfare is an essential military tactic, says Alexander
Lt. Gen. Sorenson at AFCEA Belvoir