Courtesy photo

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — A pilot program is in place for Soldiers in the field to receive more timely software updates.

The work behind the pilot was done by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command’s Software Engineering Center, at APG, that will allow deployed units to access their home bases so they can better maintain their systems.

Speaking at the AFCEA’s Army 2020 Signal Conference last month, CECOM commanding general Maj. Gen. Mitchell Kilgo spoke about how the command is working to support the Army through software readiness initiatives.

There is increased operational risk due to Army units fighting with outdated and vulnerable software, Kilgo said, adding that Soldiers are used to getting software updates via a disc every quarter.

The answer to the outdated software may come in the form of a common software repository, a centralized server that hosts and houses the software CECOM sustains. Through this platform, Soldiers could pull software updates from it, or the enterprise can push updates to Soldiers in the field.

“Having that available with the latest and greatest software for all your systems allows units to pull that software at any time,” Kilgo said. “So when they have the opportunity to upgrade their systems, that software is available for them, they know it’s the latest, they know it’s securely patched, and all vulnerabilities have been mitigated with it.”

The pilot is being tested by the 101st Airborne Division. Kilgo said he hopes an additional OCONUS unit will test it prior to December and that the system will be at full operational capacity in the middle of fiscal 2021.

CECOM is also working with U.S. Army Forces Command, Army G6 and Army G 3/5/7 in software preventative maintenance and readiness reporting. Kilgo said the Army has long focused on hardware, but not as much on software.

In part, this includes the development of a scorecard that Soldiers will use to report the status of their software, which will provide preventative maintenance and readiness reporting.

CECOM is now working on automated software that detects software builds and patching that can be sent to a Soldier’s system out in the field. He said fiscal 2021 will be spent on refining the tool, with the goal of having a pilot ready to go in fiscal 2022.

Kilgo said the efforts to modernize software at CECOM will bring confidence that Soldiers have the right software in their systems to be effective, and that they’re secure.

“This gets at tying the hardware and software of our systems together to give us a better picture of how ready our forces are to fight,” he said.