Programs take advantage of open technologies but department needs to develop policies on use

“If the project is of a sufficient scale, you cannot get there without an open-source approach,” said Dewey Houck, a senior engineer at Boeing, who spoke at a conference last month about DOD’s use of open source, sponsored by the Association for Enterprise Integration.

“On the battlefield, the enemy gets a vote,” said Brig. Gen. Nickolas Justice, Army program executive officer for command, control and communications tactical. “The software has to change if the business changes. We want young sergeants and captains to be able to change things in their battle command applications as conditions change.”