Case Study: United States Air Force achieves faster mission-critical software delivery and improved operational agility with VMware Tanzu

The Air Force Proves Modern Software Development Isn’t Just for the Private Sector

VMware Tanzu (through Pivotal) helped the U.S. Air Force confront a common but critical problem: legacy, slow software development and onerous “Authority to Operate” rules that stretch projects into three- to five-year timelines, leaving warfighters with tools that are obsolete by the time they reach the field. The challenge was to replace Big Design Up Front processes with a development approach that could deliver timely, mission-focused capabilities in a rapidly changing operational environment.

Tanzu/Pivotal applied a warfighter-centric model—small cross-functional teams, event storming, cloud‑native app development, and incremental replatforming/rewrite—to deliver working software in months rather than years. In the Air Operations Center Weapons System refueling example, a paper-based coordination process became a software solution delivered in months, producing measurable first-, second-, and third-order mission-effectiveness gains and significantly improved operational agility.

United States Air Force

Bob Strini

Retired USAF Fighter Pilot and Former Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and Air Combat Command (ACC) Staff Officer