HUNTSVILLE, Alabama— Nine months ago, the 4th Infantry Division’s commander told an audience that he would be perfectly happy to take a piece of tech that does 60 percent of what the Army needs and let his soldiers’ feedback inform the remaining 40. On Wednesday, he said he’d like to switch those ratios.
Gen. Pat Ellis and his soldiers have been helping the Army develop its next-generation command-and-control software as the service tries out its new approach to acquisition, taking existing technology and putting it into the field as developers stand by to integrate soldier feedback.
“We’ll go 40 percent,” Ellis said at the AUSA Global Force Symposium. “We don’t want the product to be perfect. The soldiers actually want to be active participants in the development process.”…