HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- The Department of the Air Force conducted its latest “BRAVO” hackathon March 20 – 24 at Hurlburt Field, Florida, this time partnering with the other defense services and intelligence agencies.
A hackathon is an innovation building conference commonly employed by technology companies where agile teams develop prototypes, working around-the-clock over the course of a week in response to challenges associated with data. Prior BRAVO projects have produced multiple prototypes and inventions influencing major Defense Department programs.
“The last two events specifically solved U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force problems at three separate classifications and demonstrated BRAVO events produce operational prototypes at a 10x-100x lower cost than any other known Department of Defense prototyping pathways," said Chief Digital Transformation Officer for the U.S. Department of the Air Force and hackathon co-organizer, Stuart Wagner. “The primary goal of BRAVO 10 Opana was to confirm this approach scales to all military services and federal agency partners. What we learned was that the mixing effect between diverse problems, concepts and participants increased serendipity and effectiveness, which improved project capabilities and the number of probable transition partners. Current interest suggests greater than 40% of projects will transition in some form, which would significantly outperform our prior transition success rates of 20%-30%.”
The event drew approximately 450 participants from all military services, three intelligence agencies, 40 companies, and U.S. citizens and produced approximately 35 projects across two site locations. There were multiple Army and Navy led projects, with the remainder constituting projects originating with the Air Force and Space Force. Various projects were deployed to edge compute devices supplied by Project Overmatch for future evaluation.
“I don’t know if anyone in the Air Force acknowledges Accelerate Change or Lose more than Air Force Special Operations Command,” said Maj. Gen. Matthew Davidson, Air Force Special Operations Command deputy commander. “We’ve got to come together with team sponsors, find learning opportunities, and take action to ensure we’re ready for the challenges and threats in front of us.”
"Multiple projects were deployed to edge compute devices supplied by Project Overmatch for future evaluation," said a senior Navy official with Project Overmatch. "This joint hackathon provides a roadmap for future cross-service collaboration and inclusion of novel capabilities in Joint All-Domain Command and Control. We are looking forward to future iterations. While going from design to deployed prototype in a week is good progress, imagine if we got that down to multiple times in one hackathon. Woah."
BRAVO took a unique approach to problem solving as Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and civilians traveled to Hurlburt Field from across the nation to propose projects on behalf of their organizations and form self-organizing teams to produce prototypes within one week.
“The U.S. Navy’s involvement led to solutions that we intend to transition. For example, MK 18 Unmanned Underwater Vehicle program representatives arrived with curated data, a specific use case and a unique set of challenges posed when operating in the undersea domain,” said Alex Zimmer, the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific MK 18 Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Autonomy & Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Data Dominance Lead. “Teams of Hackers analyzed the use case through the lens of their background in the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems which led to solutions tackling the problems from a different angle. This kind of conceptual idea sharing excels in an inter-Department of Defense environment."
"The builder's conference approach is a model for rapid, joint innovation. From the Army Special Operations perspective, this was a great learning opportunity that expanded our professional network and demonstrated strong proofs-of-concept in just one very busy week. This tech-focused sprint provided teams access to tools and data not readily found in the Department of Defense. Most importantly, bringing such a diverse group of smart problem-solvers together gave us the opportunity to innovate and collaborate on our hardest technical issues,” said Meridith Fonseca, U.S. Army Special Operations Command Research and Development director.
“It’s a convention of nerds across the Department of Defense,” said Elisha Crow, participant from Kessel Run within Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Digital Directorate. “The hackathon has been more than great networking. It will help with knowledge sharing and next steps going forward.”
“I came to the hackathon to solve our Squadron’s data woes,” said 2nd Lt. Luke Kenworthy, participant from the 4th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado. “We came with a hard problem and made significant progress that will be very valuable.”
Now that the event is completed, it is the responsibility of stakeholders within Department of Defense programs and other innovation pathways to evaluate and sponsor prototype projects they see as feasible against their problem sets.
“It’s been fascinating how many young Airmen are showing incredible talent toward problem solving,” said Davidson. “The challenge now for leaders like me is to create pathways for these Airmen to face and overcome the threats ahead of us. We don’t know when the next fight will occur, but we know we have exactly from now until then to get ready.”
“At Acquisition Integration and Interoperability, we are trying to radically reduce development cycles times through competitive advantage and software pathfinders and then apply what we learn to drive process reforms DoD-wide,” Sean Brady, the Deputy Director for Joint Interoperability and Senior Lead for Software Modernization within Under Secretary of Defense Acquisitions and Sustainment/ Acquisition Integration and Interoperability.
“We need to set the conditions for modern software and interoperability that support the joint high-end, connected fight. Project Bravo aligns to our goals in Acquisitions and Sustainment to accelerate innovation through the data-driven development of Minimum Viable Products that reduce risk and allow teams to quickly get operator feedback on operational use cases. We are exploring how we might integrate more Acquisition Integration and Interoperability/U.S. Indo-Pacific Command problem sets and joint operational use cases into the Project Bravo framework and use the outcomes to drive wider innovation and process transformation across the formation,” Brady said.
In January 2022, the Department of the Air Force ran BRAVO 0, its first department-wide classified innovation hackathon with Air Force weapons system data at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. BRAVO 1 Canary Release grew the effort when in July 2022, the department ran its second hackathon simultaneously at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; Patrick Space Force Base, Florida; and Eglin AFB, Florida at three classifications with about 300 hackers.
This recent event – BRAVO 10 Opana - continued counting using the binary number system. The term Opana comes from the Opana Army Radar site, Hawaii which first detected simultaneous bomber aircraft one hour before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. These digital data were ignored, demonstrating the costs of failing to extract signal from data in advance of impending war.
Named from Billy Mitchell’s controversial 1920s Project B battleship bombing trials that creatively disproved the top funding priority of the Secretary of War by demonstrating bombers sink battleships, BRAVO hackathons are designed to empower government, academia, industry and citizens to rapidly develop capabilities from existent DoD data and weapons systems.
“At this point, the BRAVO hackathon series has pushed the needle by proving three times we can prototype joint DoD capabilities in one week that transition.” Wagner said. “Our next events - if funded - will break the gauge by rapidly building and productionalizing capability inside various theatres to be used in the event of war.”
The Department of the Air Force Hackathon series is sponsored by the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Project Morpheus, Air Force Special Operations Command, Project Overmatch, the Air Force Office of the Chief Information Officer, Secretary of the Air Force Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Special Programs, Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Advana program, the Air Force Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer, Air Force Global Strike Command, and the Stitches Warfighter Application Team. Sponsoring projects and weapons data came from Project ARC, the Air Force Research Lab, Air Operation Centers, Shadow Operations Center-Nellis, the 90th Cyber Operations Squadron, intelligence agencies, the U.S. Army 18th Airborne Corps, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Naval Special Warfare, and Air Force Special Operations Command among many other organizations.
Winners:
Bravo 10 Hackathon Projects, Site A
Red Bloons
Awards - Best Combatant Command Use Case, Flight/Underwater Data Runner Up, Best Cyber/Electronic Warfare runner-up
U.S. Army Special Operations Command Artificial Intelligence
Awards - Best Effects Chains Use Case, Impactful to Junior Enlisted Runner Up, "Billy Mitchell" - most disagreeable and likely to result in court-martial runner-up
HAWK AI
Awards - Data Visualization/User Experience, Best Logistics/Maintenance runner-up
FAB-T
Awards - Best Cyber/EW, Best Sensor Use Case runner-up
Yodacorn
Awards - Most Impactful to Junior Enlisted, Best Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Most Inventive Capability
Table Setter
Awards - Data Scraper/Labeler/Curator/Creator, "Grace Hopper"-Best Software Design, Best Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Runner Up, Best Effects Chain Use Case runner-up
JBAR the Hutt
Awards – Best Sensor Use Case, Best Combatant Command Use Case runner-up
mIRCAT
Awards – "Billy Mitchell" award-most disagreeable and likely to result in court martial, Best Special Operations Impacts, "Chair Force" IT/Business/Admin runner-up
BTW (Behind The Wall)
Awards – Best Special Operations Impacts Runner Up, "Grace Hopper"-Best Software Design runner up, Most Inventive Capability runner Up, "Chair Force" IT/Business/Admin
ACES
Awards – Data Visualization/User Experience Runner Up, Best Flight/Underwater Data
Sledge Hammer
Awards – Best Logistics/Maintenance, Data Scraper/Labeler/Curator/Creator runner-up
Bravo 10 Hackathon Projects, Site B
Battering Ram 2030
Awards – Most Inventive Capability, "Billy Mitchell" award-most disagreeable and likely to result in court martial runner-up
Bravo Biometrics
Awards – Data Scraper / Labeler / Curator / Creator runner-up
Dragon Riders
Awards - Data Scraper / Labeler / Curator / Creator, "Effects Chain" – Joint all Domain Command and Control Shooter and Effects runner-up
Duck Duck Boom (Gravy Seals)
Awards - "Sensor" - Spectrum, Sonar, video, etc. runner up, "Effects Chain" – Joint All Domain Command and Control Shooter and Effects runner-up
Erebus (Alucard)
Awards - Logistics/Maintenance runner-up
Exodus
Awards - Most Impactful to Junior Enlisted runner up, Data Visualization/User Experience runner-up
GamUnition
Awards - Data Visualization / User Experience, "Grace Hopper" - Best Software Design, Most Impactful to Junior Enlisted runner-up
JAGger Swagger (Team 15)
Awards - "Billy Mitchell" - Most disagreeable and likely to result in court martial, "Chairforce" - IT/Business/Admin, "Grace Hopper" - Best Software Design runner-up
MicroZarf
Awards - Most Inventive Capability, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Runner-Up, Special Operations Impacts runner-up
Mine_Sweepers
Awards – Flight/Underwater Data
POL Cats
Awards - Best Combatant Command Use Case, Best Logistics/Maintenance
SCARY OPS
Awards - Cyber/Electronic Warfare, "Effects Chain" – Joint All Domain Command and Control Shooter and Effects runner-up
Skybound Schedulers
Awards - "Grace Hopper" - Best Software Design runner up, "Chairforce" - IT/Business/Admin Runner-Up and Flight/Underwater Data runner up
Supernovas
Awards - Most Impactful to Junior Enlisted
TRITON
Awards - Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, "Sensor" - Spectrum, Sonar, video, etc., "Effects Chain" – Joint All Domain Command and Control Shooter and Effects, Special Operations Impacts, Hacker’s Choice, Data Scraper/Labeler/Curator/Creator runner up, Best Combatant Command Use Case - (Indo-Pacific Command, Central Command, etc.) runner up
UUheel (Team 13)
Awards - Data Scraper/Labeler/Curator/ Creator runner up, "Effects Chain" - JADC2 Shooter and Effects runner up
WildC@TS
Awards - "Grace Hopper" - Best Software Design runner up