WASHINGTON — The Army has already sent so-called jailbroken systems to the Middle East as part of its ongoing 30-day hackathon, according to top officials.
The effort stems from Operation Jailbreak, a sprint that began in early May and will conclude on June 6 to open up the interfaces of legacy and new equipment with the goal of making them interoperable to share data and information. Jailbreaking is a term that refers to reworking or eliminating the manufacturer software restrictions on systems.
“We have already been pushing updates from here down to Central Command,” Alex Miller, the Army’s chief technology officer, told reporters Thursday. “One of the first couple systems that were jailbroken was really our command and control, our C2 platform, and the ability to actually tie in a lot of the counter-UAS, the counter unmanned system, radars, cameras, and effectors. Our goal is that all the positive benefits that come out of Operation Jailbreak are in the fight within 30 days and then what the secretary has also challenged us on is what is the next sprint look like. Who should be included that from the joint force and from our partners and allies.”
Miller later clarified that given the relative pause in fighting as part of Operation Epic Fury, none of the systems sent to the region have been used in an offensive capacity yet. While only a couple of patches were sent, the goal is to get the rest there in 30 days.
