Photo By Kacey C Napier | The Beale Air Force Base Combat Innovation Exercise Team poses for a photo next to a...... read more read more
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EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – Over the past 6 months, the Beale Innovation Team attended multiple temporary duties (TDY) tackling innovation combat employment under the name Combat Innovation Task Force with the premise that if Airmen were in a contested environment on an island, would they be able to pivot and survive utilizing skills learned via innovation.
Since 2017, innovators from across the Department of Defense (DoD) have created education lessons to better understand skills that directly contribute to a culture shift and ultimately an adaptive way of thinking to solve DoD problems. Classes like ‘Design Warfare’ were created to help fill that gap and are backed by the Air Force Work Project (AFWERX). While innovation education still struggles to reach wings across the Air Force, such TDY’s are an invitation to build and alpha test the newest innovation education to allow participating service members to jumpstart into innovation without spending months and thousands of dollars on training that may or may not be properly effective.
From July 22-26, the Beale Innovation Team participated in building an Innovation Combat Exercise backed by AFWERX, Headquarters Air Force Strategic Studies Group (HAF/SSG), and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Members of Spark Cells from various Major Commands (MAJCOMS) and career backgrounds united to create and test a course to foster innovation utilized for combat capabilities. Beale members directly impacted the creation of a new standard of Air Force training.
“Creating and testing such a course that challenges the way we think and shows the way we function as a Beale Spark Cell can directly impact the Air Force ecosystem as a whole and help with tackling problems at the strategic level that currently doesn’t have solutions,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Brandon Eastman, 9th Reconnaissance Wing Beale Innovation Team Director. “This was a joint effort between AFWERX and HAF/SSG where we participated in an Alpha test for Combat Innovation education with a goal of creating a standard course that could be utilized Air Force wide.”
The Team operated as the assessors and white cell to generate scenarios or ‘injects’ into a pre-built exercise in cooperation with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, July 27 through Aug. 9. The first week featured classroom instruction on computer aided design, automation, AI, coding, servo actuator systems, and a host of other skills. During the second week, participants went to the field to perform the actual exercise, sleeping and operating in a simulated contested environment to experience the emotional and physical rigors of that environment while testing innovation capabilities.
“During this portion, we were the white cell for an exercise that brought members from the Space Force and Air Force including Active Duty, Reserve, officers, and enlisted with backgrounds in coding, fabrication, and engineering.” said Eastman. “We essentially employed a hub and spoke concept when it comes to combat innovation and tested how these members tackle problem sets in a combat environment. We identified core skills and competencies critical to this kind of strategic level innovation and documented them throughout the exercise to create a data point to compare to AFSC’s and develop a way of thinking and skillset to help us in the future.”
The Air Force wants more of this type of thinking and exercises to help Airmen become comfortable with the uncomfortable, creating Mission-Ready Airmen (MRE). These Airmen will function as a team capable of completing various multifaceted tasks in a contested environment required for mission completion.. These exercises give Airmen the ability to come at problem sets from a different perspective to create a better product for a more agile force of the future.
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2024 16:40 |
| Story ID: | 482776 |
| Location: | EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Beale Innovation Team Members Spark Course Impacting Force of the Future, by SrA Alexis Pentzer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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