Army launches software screening tool but can't say how much it will save

November 11, 2026

The Army is rolling out a new screening system meant to get commercial software into soldiers' hands faster, but officials admit they can't yet say how much time or money it will actually save.

Snapshot

Acting Army Chief Information Officer Gabriele "Gabe" Chiulli announced at an Oct. 13 press roundtable during the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting that Project Gatekeeper will launch Oct. 23. The platform lets commercial developers submit code for cybersecurity screening even without an existing Army contract or program manager sponsor, replacing what Chiulli called a patchwork of inconsistent procedures.

Key points

The delay problem: David M. Markowitz, the Army's deputy chief information officer, said some major software programs take six to eight months to reach an initial working capability, with larger programs costing millions per month.
CAC card workaround: Chiulli said the Army has sometimes issued Common Access Cards to entire teams of outside developers, in some cases a hundred people, just so they could transfer code.
Login.gov integration coming: David Wright, chief architect at the Army Software & Innovation Center, said the service expects to add GSA's Login.gov system by mid-November, opening Gatekeeper to developers without military credentials.
Scope of the fix: Officials estimated 40 to 50 companies are already hitting the obstacles Gatekeeper is designed to address, with wider commercial rollout targeted for November.
Savings unknown: Chiulli declined to estimate cost or manpower savings, and Wright said the workload is spread across too many program offices to calculate precisely.

Quick take

Gatekeeper looks like a sensible attempt to unclog a slow, credential-heavy process without lowering cybersecurity standards, according to the Army officials who briefed reporters. Whether it actually cuts costs or timelines remains an open question the service itself hasn't answered yet.

Read the full story: military.com