New US Army Data Reference Architecture Can Unlock Opportunities for Small Firms, Official Says

The U.S. Army’s new Unified Data Reference Architecture 1.0 will enable the service branch to continue advancing its modular open system approach to rapidly develop warfighting technologies. 

In a blog post on the Army’s website, Jennifer Swanson, the service’s deputy assistant secretary for data, engineering and software, said UDRA ushers in a series of Army reference architectures for a seamless integration of technologies, regardless of their original developers. 

The Army’s Innovation Exchange Lab, itself a new unit of the service branch, opened industry access to UDRA on March 22. According to Swanson, the UDRA’s MOSA approach enables smaller companies to compete for the service’s subsystem platforms, which results in a competitive environment conducive to lower costs and innovation, Army .mil reported Thursday.

Swanson stressed that industry access to IXL will be convenient because of the lab’s cloud-based setup. It will allow industry and software developers to readily evaluate their solutions’ performance within UDRA’s first iteration, she added.

Swanson’s office runs the IXL in partnership with the Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground.