The Air Force is amid a far-reaching campaign, coordinated by the Air Force Materiel Command, to digitally transform itself. The Air Force Digital Campaign is the vision of former assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics Dr. Will Roper, who resigned in January. Though Dr. Roper has moved on, the Air Force remains committed to continuing on the digital transformation path.
“Transitioning to a digital AFMC enterprise is a priority for our command and is foundational to our success in today’s adversarial environment. To continue to be the critical enabler for our Air Force and deliver capability at the speed of relevance, we need to leverage digital technologies to better enable a fully interconnected Air Force research, acquisition, test, and sustainment enterprise.” --Gen. Arnold W. Bunch, Jr., AFMC Commander. “
Wright Brothers Institute (WBI), in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is engaged on several fronts related to this AF digital transformation.
One major undertaking was at the request of Mr. Thomas Lockhart, AFRL’s Integrated Digital Environment (IDE) lead. The Integrated Digital Environment is one of six major lines of effort under the campaign. It is working to provide models and tools for collaboration, analysis, and visualization across the functional domains of Air Force users. The IDE line of effort is foundational to the success of the entire campaign and to enabling the digital acquisition vision.
Mr. Lockhart was keenly aware of the criticality of industry engagement in the IDE and reached out to WBI for assistance in making that happen. WBI worked closely with Mr. Lockhart and his team to design a “super-collider” style workshop specifically to draw industry participants into the conversation.
The workshop was held in late February, with the overall goal to establish the next instantiation of the Air Force IDE design, a crucial step on the way to implementation of the IDE and Air Force-wide adoption of the digital acquisition model. This workshop enabled the IDE leadership to identify critical actions and priorities going forward, helping accelerate the overall effort.
WBI assisted Mr. Lockhart with workshop planning and organization; identifying and securing participants; advertising, promoting, and registering participants; hosting and facilitating the event (300+ attendees); managing and compiling Q&A (~90 questions); and preparing video recording for subsequent public posting.
Another WBI thrust involved a “coming together” of AFRL’s directorates, which had been working independently according to their individual missions and investment priorities. It was determined that for the over AFRL digital transformation to succeed, AFRL needed to work as one to answer the call to deliver enterprise-wide 'speed and discipline'cost effectively.
To promote, organize, and execute this AFRL Digital Transformation, AFRL leadership chartered the Digital TransformationTeam (DTT) in Dec 2020. One sub-group of that team is responsible for defining overall strategy and governance. Thisteam issetting themajor vectors,schedules, priorities,and foundationaloperating principlesfor theentire AFRLdigital transformation activity. The ultimate success of the overall digital transformation is directly dependent on the work of this team.
WBI provided critical assistance in “resetting” the core strategy team and providing an orientation to commercial digital transformation approaches and practices. WBI organized and facilitated two half-day workshops with the core team and presented results to the broader AFRL Digital Transformation Team.
WBI helped get the core team on track, making rapid progress toward establishing a strategyand governanceapproach forthis importantAFRL initiative.
This is truly a transformational initiative for AFRL, with potential to dramatically enhance speed and efficiency ofAFRL operationand keeppace withDepartment of Defense expectations.