DARPA program that could enable JADC2 at risk of slipping through the bureaucratic cracks
Summary
Software designed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that purports to solve a critical battlefield networking challenge is at risk of slipping through the cracks of the military’s acquisition and sustainment system. The System-of-systems Technology Integration Tool Chain for Heterogeneous Electronic Systems (STITCHES) program— developed to create on-the-fly networks via self-writing software — has broad support among the military services, but no one can figure out how to pay for it, a DARPA official told FedScoop. (There has been a recent push to give software its own color of money, or “budget activity” in legal terms, but has yet to materialize in regulations.) “We are getting tremendous pull and demand for it,” Tim Grayson, director of the Strategic Technology Office at DARPA recently told FedScoop. DARPA said STITCHES was able to link different platforms that were built decades apart, allowing for interoperability and data sharing.