Software-Defined Warfare

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Commercial technology and recent conflicts have taught us more in the last 24 months about the future of warfare than the preceding decade. This course examines current technology paradigms within the US military, near peer and pacing threat adversaries as well as nations in recent conflicts as we fully embark on the "decisive decade." The emerging use of disruptive innovations and associated principles and architectures have shown promise but scale and speed have not been mastered. This course analyzes current competitive advantage and opportunities to increase future advantage through improved technology delivery. Shifts in both market economics and battlefield dynamics require a deeper understanding of the underlying software, the enterprises who deliver them, and how. Trends in commercial delivery and changes in funding are producing a new defense and software industrial base and understanding it before it is fully here is a key to maximizing public-private benefit. The rise of autonomy on attritable hardware along with how commercial software and clouds are provided and consumed will be evaluated. Similarly, the stakeholders and processes across the national security ecosystem will be analyzed - past, present and projected future. This analysis will be evaluated along the lines of national industrial bases, partnerships and contrasted competitively against the so-called "technological valley of death."