Two in a row: Armaments Center receives Hopper Award for Software Maintenance Excellence for second straight year

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. - For the third year, and second consecutive, the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center has received the prestigious Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper Award for Software Maintenance Excellence.

Issued by the Secretary of War Maintenance Awards Program on Monday, Oct. 5, this award highlights the Armaments Center’s achievements and enduring commitment to delivering software that ensures lethality, safety and operational dominance. The Armaments Center received the award previously in 2022 and 2025. Currently, its trophy is on display at the Armaments Center Headquarters building.

This year’s selection was driven by the Armaments Center’s consistent and swift delivery of high-quality software sustainment across more than 40 armament systems and by its workforce, which supports 90 percent of the U.S. Army’s lethal armaments. The Armaments Center overcame funding challenges to complete multiple safety-critical software releases, maintained a 93 percent defect capture rate and achieved major cost and efficiency gains.

Additionally, the center operates at a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Maturity Level 5, remaining the only U.S. Government organization appraised at that level six times in twenty years and earning commendation from both the U.S. Army and the Department of War (DoW). This acclamation highlights the organization’s continuous improvement and highly optimized processes and the trust its stakeholders hold.

At the same time, the center has zeroed in on Agile software development, which highlights constant collaboration, and by working hand-in-hand with customers, the center focuses on delivering software capability to the warfighter. Implemented while the DoW favors the rapid delivery of new capabilities, Agile allows projects to pivot immediately to respond to warfighter needs.

The center’s successful balance of CMMI’s precision and rigor with Agile’s responsiveness and speed positions the organization to deliver high-quality solutions at a pace that meets modern demands, according to Armaments Center Director Chris Grassano.

“It’s this strength that enables us to deliver solutions that are reliable, secure and responsive enough to meet the rapidly evolving needs of the battlefield,” he said. “I express my congratulations and thanks to the workforce for its continued excellence!”

Other members of Armaments Center leadership held a similar view.

“This honor reflects our organization's standard of engineering rigor, modern DevSecOps (development, security and operations) integration and an enduring zero-defect culture that delivers mission-critical software at the speed of operational relevance,” said Executive Director of the Armaments Center’s Weapons and Software Engineering Center Bhavanjot Singh.

“Above all, this achievement belongs to our exceptional engineering workforce. It showcases the world-class expertise, discipline and agility resident at Picatinny Arsenal. Our engineers and software professionals take tremendous pride in knowing that the code and systems they sustain directly protect service members and ensure dominance on the battlefield every single day.”

“For the Armaments Center, winning the Grace Hopper Award for the second year in a row indicates that our workforce continues to set the DoW standard for excellence with respect to software maintenance. Armaments Center management is extremely proud of the talent and dedication of our workforce, and their efforts provide our warfighters the best software maintenance in all of the DoW,” said Director of the Armaments Software and Networked Lethality Directorate Joshua Charm.

The Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper Awards, named for a pioneering computer scientist and mathematician, represent the pinnacle of recognition for software maintenance by an organic software activity within the DoW. Eligibility is determined by mission accomplishments, effective support to military operations, software process improvement and work force enhancement programs.

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