The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) is collaborating with the Department of the Army to swiftly implement AI-driven coding tools throughout the Defense Department (DOD), which was rebranded as the War Department during the Trump administration.
In a call for solutions document published on February 19, officials outlined their goal of equipping DOD software developers with commercial-grade AI tools to enhance and expedite software delivery. This call aims to pinpoint “commercially available AI-enabled coding tools and platforms that can be deployed at an enterprise scale across the DOD.”
The CDAO will collaborate closely with the Department of the Army and the Army Contracting Command — Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Digital Capabilities Contracting Center of Excellence. The Army has been designated as the leading organization for this initiative.
According to the solicitation, the DOD’s software development workforce currently “lacks standardized, enterprise-wide access to AI-enabled coding tools that are commonplace in the commercial sector.”
This deficiency, officials assert, hampers developer productivity, delays the delivery of mission-critical software, and “positions the department at a disadvantage concerning the speed of innovation in the private sector.”
“These capabilities must be accessible to the department’s developer workforce across various computing environments, operate within the department’s security and compliance frameworks, and be deployable at scale to encourage broad adoption,” the notice states. “The department seeks solutions that minimize delivery time while maximizing capability and interoperability with existing infrastructure.”
In particular, the department is looking for AI-enabled coding capabilities delivered through two main modalities: integrated development environment (IDE)-based coding assistance and command-line interface (CLI)-based agentic coding.
IDE-based coding assistance involves AI-powered tools that integrate into existing code editors to offer features such as code completion, generation, inline chat support, and AI-driven code reviews.
On the other hand, CLI-based agentic coding encompasses AI-powered tools that function in terminal environments and can perform autonomous, multistep coding tasks. These include code generation, testing, debugging, refactoring, and deployment workflows, all under human supervision.
The call for solutions outlines a multi-phase submission process. Phase 1 involves a high-level solution brief. Selected offerors may subsequently be invited to participate in Phase 2, which consists of a pitch and potential product demonstration, unless bypassed. Offerors moving on to Phase 3 will be required to submit a comprehensive proposal for final evaluation and potential award.
The deadline for submitting questions for Phase 1 is set for 1 p.m. Eastern on February 27, with the submission deadline for solution briefs on March 6.
Additionally, the notice advises organizations planning to submit a solution brief to inform the contracting office as soon as possible via a Microsoft Forms link.
