VMware has been selected by U.S. Army Futures Command to create a software development–focused army unit in Austin, Texas—the Army Software Factory. Together, Army Futures Command and VMware will cultivate the first Soldier-led “Silicon Valley software company” inside the Army.

The new initiative will equip soldiers to take up cloud native development practices and help produce software to address current and future mission priorities.

Through the Army Software Factory, the U.S. Army will tap into the deep pool of talent across its workforce and upskill tech-minded soldiers and civilians. Cohorts of Army soldiers and Government civilians will go through a comprehensive program that will begin in the classroom and span critical disciplines including software engineering, design and product management, and platform operations.

Soldiers will be paired with a VMware Tanzu Labs expert in their fields for deep on-the-job enablement to learn to build, develop, field and operate software in the same way as the best Silicon Valley companies. For each of the next five years, 30 hand-selected soldiers and civilians from the Army will enter the program every six months.

Working with VMware Tanzu Labs, U.S. Army soldiers will learn how to build portable cloud-native apps, rapidly deliver them to production, and run them in any environment. The Army Software Factory will train and enable soldiers to produce modern software organically. It will prepare soldiers with the DevSecOps practices and software development skills they need for future digital battlefields.

The U.S. Army Software Factory’s Tanzu Platform is now in production, hosting its first accredited apps and products built by the Army Software Factory and VMware Tanzu Labs.