DARPA Seeks Legacy Software Modernization Concepts

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for potential sources of code verification and assurance concepts to support an initiative to modernize the Department of Defense’s legacy software platforms.

The Verified Security and Performance Enhancement of Large Legacy Software program is aimed at creating a shared toolset for developers to support piece-by-piece software updates, DARPA said in a broad agency announcement posted Friday.

DARPA noted in the BAA that it plans to award a potential $40M other transaction agreement for the V-SPELLS initiative in an effort to drive research into the incremental introduction of new products into legacy DoD platforms.

The DoD has “a critical need” for replacing and updating existing software parts while mitigating potential compatibility issues with larger systems, the notice states.

V-SPELLS will also serve as a shared repository of tools and methods related to source code concepts, domain data abstractions, verification, composable system architectures, domain-specific languages and other programming approaches.

Interested parties can submit research proposals through Sept. 9.

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