Bad Idea: Relying on Government Software
Bad Ideas in National Security Series
December 21, 2021 — Matthew Strohmeyer
Competition is much about identifying and exploiting asymmetric advantages—areas of outsized overmatch against an adversary. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in his recent comments at the Reagan National Defense Forum, identified the U.S. commercial innovation base as one of those key advantages that must be leveraged to compete with China. However, he noted that, “For far too long, it’s been far too hard for innovators and entrepreneurs to work with the Department. And the barriers for entry into this effort to work with us in national security are often too steep—far too steep.” Gaining the best capabilities for national security requires identifying and removing these barriers to the free-market commercial innovation base. In the increasingly important realm of software for national security, the emphasis on government-built and government-owned software forms one of these barriers. Relying on government software without leaving room for commercial solutions is a bad idea.
The nation that successfully leverages data and software to reach decisions faster than adversaries will possess an asymmetric advantage ahead of future crises and conflicts. This includes software that translates petabytes of disparate digital data sets—open-source, classified, structured, and unstructured—into decision-ready information. Whether curating logistics data for force movement decisions, alerting humans to suspicious changes in adversary maritime posture, or pairing joint force defense assets to incoming enemy missiles during an attack, the best software can provide better awareness and the decision advantage that will be crucial in any future fight. The way that this software is developed, secured, and updated makes all the difference in mission effectiveness.
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