Raytheon’s Todd Probert, Pivotal’s Keith Salisbury: DoD Needs to Field Software at Speed of Relevance

Todd Probert of Raytheon and Keith Salisbury of Pivotal Software have said the Defense Department needs to adopt modern software development processes and tools to accelerate the deployment of initial operating capability applications to warfighters within days.

Probert and Salisbury wrote in a Fifth Domain article published Nov. 1 how the U.S. Air Force works to speed up software delivery efforts through its Air Operations Center program.

They discussed how a Raytheon-operated modern application system – Pivotal Cloud Foundry – allows AOC to automate and standardize software lifecycle operations, concentrate on the code’s mission logic and deploy “capabilities at the speed of relevance.”

“With a continuous fielding capability for software, daily feedback from the warfighter immediately informs a backlog that results in new software features being accredited and delivered by the end of the week,” they added.

Some of the mission capabilities deployed to service personnel within 120 days include mission reporting, refueling, deliberate targeting and advanced target production.

Probert is vice president of mission support and modernization at Raytheon’s intelligence, information and services business, while Salisbury is VP of Pivotal’s federal business.