According to a press release from Air Combat Command, members of the Air Combat Command Federal Laboratory, test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base, and software developers from the 309th Software Engineering Group achieved several milestones on an in-flight F-22 Raptor, Aug. 24.
The achievement is the first instance of third-party software running on a fifth-generation fighter and the first in-flight use of open-source container orchestration software on any fighter aircraft.
“This breakthrough fundamentally changes how we can deliver combat capability to the warfighter,” said Maj. Allen Black, F-22 test pilot and project co-lead. “We’ve proven the ability to rapidly evaluate and integrate next-generation technologies developed by experts in government, industry, and academia at a lower cost with software portability across defense platforms.”
Established in 2018, the ACC Federal Laboratory functions under the Office of the Chief Scientist and operates with a vision to summon and coalesce a “Confluence of Warfighters, Developers, and Acquirers” while bridging advanced technologies with fielded weᴀpon systems. The result is an inspired defense industrial base with intellectual property protection and increased safeguards to mission critical systems.
The lab changed public policy in 2021 and established the National Institute for Standards and Technology’s 20th Laboratory Accreditation Program known as Federal Warfare Systems. NIST accreditation standardizes the competence, impartiality, and operational consistency of Federal Laboratories of this type in the DoD, providing senior leaders with published policy to sanction and underwrite this activity.
The ACC Federal Laboratory is uniquely positioned to leverage the space left of formal requirements, where technologies vital to all air power systems can be matured, verified and validated in comparable technical and operational environments.
“The complimentary position of the ACC Fed Lab. within the acquisitions process allows the government to fly before they buy,” said Maj. Ray Tierney, ACC Federal Laboratory founder and director. “This increases modernization throughput, decouples software development from Operational Flight Program cycles, and allows the delivery of advanced capability to assure dominance in strategically competitive environments – creating cost offsets previously believed to be impossible.”
Ultimately, this milestone shines a bright future for software acquisition in the DoD, one where apps are rapidly developed, matured and delivered to the warfighter at the push of a button. Initially working with F-22 Program Office as an early adopter of OSE, the team is evaluating and integrating several candidate combat capabilities as cross-platform solutions.
“We must build an enduring advantage for our force,” said Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command. “This ‘bring the future faster’ initiative allows us to rapidly discover and iterate on combat capabilities and stay relevant with cutting-edge technology and affordably accelerate change in delivering combat Air Force capabilities as an enterprise.”
