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Air Force designates 552nd ACNS as software factory

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Griffen D. Castle
  • 552nd Air Control Network Squadron

On Oct. 16, the 552nd Air Control Network Squadron’s Development, Security and Operations Flight was officially designated and recognized by the Air Force’s Chief Software Officer Nicolas Chaillan as an Air Force Software Factory.

The accomplishment highlights the DevSecOps Flight, otherwise known as “Scorpion CAMP,” as one of only 16 other software factories across the United States.

According to Lt. Col. Emmanuel L. Matos, 552nd ACNS commander, Scorpion CAMP’s mission is to “provide America’s Wing and Air Force Mission Defense Teams with tailored software capabilities in order to detect, defend, and deter cyber threats across high-value weapons systems.”

Using a team of 28 military and civilian programmers, the DevSecOps flight has combated the coronavirus pandemic and overhauled decades old programming processes to leverage a new agile paradigm. The Cyber Support Flight, now reorganized as the DevSecOps Flight, revamped the old programming process known as a “waterfall method” for producing software, which resulted in long wait times between product releases.

During the start of the pandemic, the team modernized and aligned their goals with the 552nd ACW’s goal of bringing the future faster. Scorpion CAMP is now postured with Mission Defense Teams across the Air Force to deliver cyber mission assurance capabilities at the speed of operational relevance via the newly implemented DevSecOps model.

The creation of Scorpion CAMP marked a radical change for the ACNS’s programming section.

“When I first arrived at the ACNS, a small few programmers were actually doing development work, while the majority of my peers were conducting operational testing,” said Senior Airman Stefon Myrick. “AWACS software and updates were being pushed out about once a year.”

With the creation of Scorpion CAMP, all the developers in the ACNS are using their programming knowledge to develop, using a new agile software processes, which uses a modern development pipeline to provide the customer with highly secure and high quality software or tools in a matter of weeks or even days.

“The code is not even half of the story of success here, the Airmen get the job done,” said Maj. Edward Wilson, DevSecOps Flight commander. “The innovative Airmen we have at the ACNS are unmatched and their required programming skillsets are unlimited in cyberspace domain.”

Wilson said it’s leaders like Mrs. Terry Jackson, 1st Lt. Morgan Taylor, Master Sgt. Brandon Van Veldhuizen, Master Sgt. Travis Menard and “the hardworking product owners” Staff Sgt. Zachary Goyer, Senior Airman Stefon Myrick and Airman 1st Class Logan Tamayo who make the mission happen.