The effects of budget cuts on Army materiel command post deployment software support facilities

Abstract

Increasingly, Department of Defense (DoD) weapon systems are becoming more software dependent. The future holds a ten-fold increase in the amount of on-board software in military systems. Software will provide more functionality and there will be more of it. The growth in the amount of fielded software has increased the requirements for software support services. It is estimated that more than 70% of the DoD expenditure for software is for what is commonly referred to as post deployment software support (PDSS), i.e., software maintenance of fielded system software. This thesis examines the impact of the declining defense budget and personnel reductions on Army software support activities, and the potential effect on operational systems. A secondary question was to review what is involved in PDSS support and what missions the PDSS centers perform. During this research the PDSS centers at CECOM and MICOM were examined. They provide 'cradle to grave' software support. While both PDSS centers have experienced a constant growth in the number of systems they support, the number of people they have on hand has actually decreased. At the same time their budgets have not increased proportionately to their increased workload. Support for some systems has been terminated because of the cut backs. Continued budget cuts could jeopardize their ability to provide support to many systems in the future