Fuel, food, ammunition and spare parts — all are on what would seem like an endless list of needs to keep the Army moving in the field. 

Many of these needs are managed on spreadsheets and whiteboards, and take hours of manpower to manage. 

Rune Technologies, a Virginia-based company, is building software, TyrOS, to help lighten the mental load for soldiers managing the Army’s supply needs and it’s starting at the hardest place, the tactical edge, where troops will be facing an adversary, co-founder and CEO of Rune, David Tuttle said Wednesday. Tuttle, an Army veteran himself, leads the company of 45 that he co-founded in 2024.

He has seen the problems he is trying solve firsthand as an Army officer in 2012, tracking the status of vehicles’ maintenance on a whiteboard.

“We have to do better,” he said.

Rune is testing and developing its software on Fort Carson as part of an effort to build the Army a single, modern IT foundation, known as Next Generation Command and Control. Many of the Army’s current computer systems are single-purpose and dated. The new system will allow for regular upgrades and updates, such as new radios and new applications.

Anduril holds a $99 million contract for the prototype of the system under development at Fort Carson. At the same time, Lockheed Martin is developing a competing prototype with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii through a $26 million contract. 

Rune’s software is getting integrated into both prototypes. 

“We are really privileged,” Tuttle said.

The 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, with its numerous Strykers and tanks, and their maintenance needs, provides a very different perspective from the 25th Infantry Division, which has more people. Both are important as the software company prepares a product to serve the entire Army. 

Rune’s team was part of a recent exercise at Fort Carson, called Ivy Sting 4, to test the new communications system, including the hardware and software. The company joined Anduril’s effort about a month ago.

“It was a very fast process and smooth,” Tuttle said. 

At a recent media roundtable, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, who leads the 4th Infantry Division, commended the efforts to improve the management of logistics on the battlefield. 

“You know where your Amazon package is every step of the way away. We need that same level of fidelity,” he said. Ellis’ soldiers are helping to develop the new system by providing ongoing feedback through the testing process.

Real-time data about the consumption of items, such as ammunition, will allow for commanders to make decisions about what units should be firing, Ellis explained. 

While the commercial analogy is a good one, the software for the Army can’t be a clone of what industry would use because of the challenges unique to warfare, such as limited access to the internet. 

To facilitate communications potentially without access to satellites, Anduril is developing a system that allows devices on the battlefield to exchange information directly. For example, a computer in a Stryker will be able to send information directly to a computer in a truck. To work within that system, Rune needs to send very small packets of data across its application and prioritize the most important information, Tuttle said. 

Anduril is also developing  Lattice Mesh, a software that serves as a translator to integrate systems speaking different computer languages as part of the prototyping process. It’s a system that let Rune integrate its software application quickly. It is one of 15 applications that Anduril is testing at Fort Carson. 

“Within hours, TyrOS was able to subscribe to key data sources using Lattice Mesh, share data across vehicles and command posts, and inform soldiers of key logistics data points,” said Tom Keane, senior vice president at Anduril, in a news release. 

Through TyrOS, Tuttle hopes to track data such as how fast fuel is getting used, to help predict what units will needs. It is also intended to help propose solutions for resupply, how it should arrive and what qualified crews could deliver it, he said. 

When it’s ready, it should eliminate hours of work that logisticians are doing manually, he said.