Army Upgrades Future Tanks, Artillery & Helicopters

by Kris Osborn

And modernization of tanks, infantry carriers, radios, artillery and other weapons relies upon software improvements.

 “No matter what weapon system — whether you’re talking about a tank and the amount code such as software code that’s now resident in our main battle tank or our newest troop carriers — they’re all very software-defined because of the platforms that we’ve integrated into their systems,” said Major General Bruce Crawford, Commander of Communications-Electronics Command. 

Crawford explained that software has increasingly played a central role in the maturation and combat effectiveness of weapon systems over the last 15 years of war.

“The capability that we have today in our formation, especially at the tactical level, is night and day, to be honest with you, compared to what we had in 2003,” he said.

Emphasizing that there is not really a weapon system of relevance on the modern battlefield that does not heavily draw from software components, Crawford said the evolution of software applications has changed tactics, techniques and procedures in combat.

“The industrial base that supports the Department of Defense has been using software to modernize, instead of focusing on just hardware as the mechanism by which they’ve been able to increase capability,” Crawford said.

Software modernization informs the often-used “open-architecture” term, a phrase designed to connote a method of IP standards software and hardware engineered to be able to quickly upgrade as new threats emerge. Such an approach to modernization allows platforms and weapon systems to integrate emerging technologies, such as software advancements, with existing weapons.