Air Force seeks digital data strategies through Ogden Catalyst Accelerator cohort

The Department of the Air Force is facing new threats from potential adversaries who are rapidly developing new capabilities. The greatest limitation to maintaining dominance in the future is the amount of time it takes to field new opportunities. Because of this, the Department of the Air Force Digital Campaign was designed as an effort to move the acquisition and sustainment enterprise towards 21st Century digital capabilities and processes. This Digital Campaign will manage Air Force technical baselines from conception through sustainment. The desired end state is “a collaborative, integrated digital environment that guides, orchestrates, and delivers the means for everyone across the enterprise to access the data, functions and elements needed to do a his or her job in a purely digital manner. This includes all functions, from acquisition to sustainment and beyond, not just engineering.”

The Air Force Digital Transformation Office (DTO) will be responsible for creating the digital governance structure and facilitating any digital acquisition transformation activities. “This office is the first organization that will stand-up from an enterprise-wide perspective to address digital needs with a long-term perspective in mind,” said James Kyle Hurst, chief of the Air Force DTO. “Though the office sits at AFMC, it carries a perspective for the entire Department of the Air Force acquisition community and encompass activities from research and development to fielding, sustainment and beyond … the entire cradle-to-grave of life cycle management.”

The Ogden Catalyst Accelerator, powered by the Air Force Digital Transformation Office, is currently accepting applications seeking Digital Data Strategy technologies for its 3-month Spring Accelerator. Applications are currently being accepted for small businesses and startups possessing dual-use technology that can be used by the Air Force. The problem statement this accelerator hopes to solve is:

How might we facilitate the development of an overarching acquisition and sustainment digital data strategy that allows for a secure and scalable cloud hybrid data environment?

The Department of the Air Force’s Digital Transformation Office is seeking companies with innovative methodologies/technologies that will accelerate development of cloud hybrid data architectures and/or facilitate the development of an overarching data strategy for the enterprise while ensuring the movement of the data happens for Air Force users in real time, near-real time. The capability envisioned is an open architecture services platform which enables plug-and-play digital functionality including increased efficiency during the product development process, support for distributed teams working on common engineering objectives, and support for an online community of users sharing data and models and building software tools.

The DTO seeks digital transformation technologies to develop, demonstrate and validate advanced digital engineering and digital manufacturing tools to accelerate their adoption and implementation of data strategies within the Air Force enterprise. The disparate way data is currently being delivered is not keeping pace with tactical timelines of the threat. The desired end state is a collaborative, integrated digital environment that guides, orchestrates, and delivers the means for everyone across the enterprise to access the data, functions, and elements needed to do his or her job in a purely digital manner.

The Ogden Catalyst Accelerator team invites early-stage companies with innovative technologies pertaining to this call to apply for the inaugural cohort focused on Digital Data Strategies.

Digital Data Strategies use cases include the following: Overarching Air Force Acquisition Data Strategy; Data Integration; Data Governance; Data Strategy Training; Data Strategy Frameworks; Data Strategy Success metrics; Trusted access to common data storage; Management of data resources across the architecture; Data visualization and data-based/model-based decision making

The Digital Data Strategies Accelerator cohort kicks-off May 2nd. Several companies will participate in the accelerator, drawing on expertise from military and commercial Sherpas, Government leaders and consultants. Participant companies will make crucial connections within Government and industry that will enable them to promote their technology and advance their position in acquiring government contracts. The Digital Data Strategies cohort will conclude with a Demo Day event on July 25th attended by Government and commercial scouts.

The Ask Me Anything event for this accelerator is on February 24 at 1:00pm Eastern. Learn more here.

Source: Ogden Catalyst Accelerator

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