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Air Force to conduct next BRAVO hackathon in March to develop prototypes

The United States Department of the Air Force will conduct a BRAVO hackathon from March 20-24, 2023, as a way for American citizens to help it innovate using open-source software and data otherwise unapproved for production with classified or protected data.

This event will take place at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and has no security clearance restrictions, despite the military involvement. While certain spaces, use cases, and datasets may still require clearances, the event itself is open to any American citizen, and organizers may request additional information for clearances that applicants hold. Applicants can apply as U.S. government employees, contractors, or civilians and are encouraged to do so by Feb. 15, 2023.

Hackathons for the military are a relatively new concept, though they are common in the private sphere, particularly among technology companies. The Air Force ran its first department-wide classified innovation hackathon with its weapons system data at Nellis Air Force Base in January 2022, followed by a second hackathon run simultaneously at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; Patrick Space Force Base, Florida; and Eglin AFB, Florida, in July 2022.

“Across the previous hackathons, we have honed methods to build and fight with classified and protected data of increasingly larger size and varied origin,” Stuart Wagner, chief digital transformation officer for the U.S. Department of the Air Force and hackathon organizer, said. “Hurlburt Field will prototype joint use cases, data, and software infrastructures from combatant commands and various military departments.”

Wagner noted these BRAVO events as ones that move the traditional Department of Defense development model to a more permissive one, enabling developers to build weapons’ capabilities and calibrations directly with the data at a lower cost compared to the traditional pipelines for prototyping. It also, in theory, could allow the development of new concepts and creations faster than adversaries could anticipate and counter.

“This event will test how ‘Dev High’ scales to joint multi-domain use cases,” Wagner said.

Three roles will be open to participants. Designated hackers could be anyone with varying skill sets and experience so long as they are dedicated project builders. Subject Matter Experts must be government employees or contractors, and these will support multiple teams with specific expertise or knowledge about certain use cases or datasets offered at the event. Supporter roles will be likewise filled by government employees and contractors and will provide administrative support for the event – security, supplies delivery, organization, and more.

For this, the Air Force has teamed up with organizations such as the “STITCHES” Warfighter Application Team, the Navy Project Overmatch program, Project Arc, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Advana Edge, and Air Force Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. Use cases and data for the hackathon were provided by all U.S. military services and the U.S. Special Operations Command.

Chris Galford

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