What to know U.S. Army relies on lightning software for weapons and communications tools. Army CTO Alex Miller emphasizes speed in acquiring new military tools. Software updates must occur frequently to avoid obsolescence on the battlefield. Vital U.S. Army weapons and communications tools are undergirded by lightning software, crucial in keeping the nation’s largest military service’s systems from becoming obsolete on modern battlefields, according to the Army’s chief technology officer. [snip] Mr. Miller stressed that core components of Army battlefield capabilities, such as the munitions and other hardware in modern missile systems, will be reliable for years. People were interested in these podcasts [snip] “And it’s not every component. A lot of our missile systems, they’re amazing. They work now. They’ve worked for years. They will work for years,” Mr. Miller said. “But if you wait five years to update the tracking software that guides the radars, the sensors, the communication, you will be obsolete in a modern battlefield.” Mr. Miller’s comments come against the backdrop of a military-wide push to ensure the U.S. solidifies an edge over its adversaries in developing one-way attack drones and other autonomous systems, long-range artillery fires and artificial intelligence, or, as President Trump calls it, super intelligence. [snip] While a drone’s hardware — its motor, sensors and other physical components — can remain relatively constant, the software beneath it can become obsolete fast as enemy forces tweak their counterdrone capabilities such as electronic warfare to jam a drone’s signal. For U.S. soldiers who could face similar battlefield challenges, Mr. Miller said the Army’s new approach draws lessons from the car industry, which makes periodic major upgrades, such as computer screens, while software updates happen consistently. [snip] A number of Army programs are driving significant change on a host of fronts. Mr. Telle cited the Army’s FUZE program, described as a venture-capital-centric strategy for finding nontraditional companies building cutting-edge capabilities, as one example. Project Janus and the Army-led Joint Interagency Task Force-401 — a plan to use nuclear microreactors on military bases and a major counterdrone initiative, respectively — are two other examples of initiatives inside the Army. [snip] For the Army, Mr. Miller said the pace of tech innovation is so fast, it’s critical soldiers aren’t overloaded with information and training. “Here is the 80% solution for 80% of your users. Here’s how it needs to be. Simple to learn, easy to operate, easy to adapt,” Mr. Miller said. “And then for our power users, for our super users who are going to get into the weeds, who are actually going to look at the telemetry data, the parametrics, who are actually going to read radar type of tracks, we can specialize there and we can train them extra. “But we really want to focus on, no matter how complex this system is, our soldiers know what their mission is. Our soldiers knows what their task is. How do we meet them where they’re at, rather than trying to make them meet the engineers where they’re at?” (*) Full article: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/oct/14/armys-chief-tech-officer-underscores-us-dominance-modern-battlefields/ Post navigation U.S. Embassy warns Americans about traveling to Saudi Arabia: ‘risk of drone and missile targeting’
