Systems Engineering, Inc. and OpsLab Win $30,000 Each for Range Scheduling Solutions
The companies tied to take the top spot with their solutions for multi-domain range scheduling and management.
Systems Engineering Inc. and OpsLab tied to receive the $30,000 each of the $75,000 total prize pool in the Multi-Domain Range Scheduling Challenge, held by the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) in partnership with the Air Force 56th Range Management Office (RMO) and Fort Huachuca’s U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence (USAICoE).
Systems Engineering Inc., OpsLab, and the second place winner, Phaedrus, were selected from a pool of 15 finalist companies that pitched their technologies at a hybrid Pitch Day held at the Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub: Arizona. Their solutions were deemed to have the greatest potential to streamline range planning, communication, and coordination to optimize resource utilization while minimizing scheduling conflicts.
“Questions like, ‘How will we optimize the utilization of our ranges?’ may seem mundane, but effective resource allocation is essential to massive organizations like the DoD,” shared NSIN Venture Portfolio Director and DIU Deputy Chief of Global Partnerships Abigail Desjardins. “The winning companies shared solutions that have the potential to deliver efficiencies that will save time and money, but more importantly, will allow more training to happen on our ranges. That is the real impact to readiness.”
Systems Engineering, Inc. delivered their Multi-Domain Range Scheduling (MDRS) system which leverages a u a scheduling bot and deconfliction algorithm to identifies scheduling conflicts and present proposed schedules to range managers. Their choice to build their solution on the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) ecosystem, an existing government geospatial mapping system, helps keep the cost of their solution down while simultaneously creating a more familiar user-experience.
OpsLab presented a range scheduling and management software that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to eliminate more than 80 percent of the labor associated with range scheduling. Their software automatically builds daily and weekly schedules, predicts attrition based on historical data, and allows leaders to reconfigure their priorities to help schedulers deconflict and allocate resources more efficiently.
The second place winner, Phaedrus, received the remaining $15,000 for their solution, the Hybrid Optimization for Warfighter Lethality (HOWL), which provides specific threads for each mission, allows users to pair missions and assets, align schedules, and develop scenarios.
“[These] solutions help to break down historical stovepipe operations by creating a cross-service planning, C2 (command and control), and execution platform allowing for more effective and efficient operations. While we all have our internal, daily mission sets to accommodate, the platform has the potential to move the military in the region to a common baseline and [achieve] better interoperability for future integrated training and test scenarios,” shared Chas Buchanan, the Director of 56 RMO.
The value of the challenge to the top companies is also immense, giving competitors an opportunity to leverage the end-user input, the lessons they learned during the live pitch, and the connections they made as they break into the government market.
Speaking to the value of their participation, Arun Nair, Co-Founder and CEO of OpsLab shared, “[this] allowed us to understand the problems faced by the end-users in depth and articulate our solution’s approach. We were also able to network with other innovators and exchange ideas, leading to better engagements with the DoD.”
About National Security Innovation Network
NSIN is a program office in the U.S. Department of Defense, nested within the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). We are set up to collaborate with a wide variety of innovators to include universities, researchers, students, entrepreneurs and start-ups. We create opportunities for collaboration across communities and connect those that might not traditionally work in national security. Together, we help drive national security innovation and develop technologies that directly support the individuals responsible for protecting our country.
For more information or interview requests with Team NSIN, please contact us at [email protected].
About Vanguard
Vanguard is an annual experimentation event at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, focusing on Multi-Domain Operations and leveraging the unique electromagnetic environment for live threat signal emission and electromagnetic attacks. This year’s event, Vanguard 2024, collaborates with various military branches, industry partners, academia, and other stakeholders to advance Intelligence and Electronic Warfare transformation objectives while integrating emerging terrestrial, airborne, and space-based technologies. The Vanguard 24 Community of Interest aims to explore and integrate emerging technologies to inform and enable modernization objectives in intelligence, electromagnetic warfare, space, and cyber domains, reducing development risk for IEWS&C enabled systems. Finalists may be selected for attendance and will have the opportunity to contribute to achieving Intelligence and Electromagnetic Warfare training, testing, and experimentation objectives, and to develop home station training requirements while experiencing a realistic electromagnetic environment for testing and training.
The 56th Range Management Office oversees the Barry M. Goldwater Range East and Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field and is responsible for more than 200 military, civilian and contract personnel. The BMGR East is the Air Force’s largest dedicated training range for U.S. and allied pilots consisting of over 1.05 million acres. 56 RMO and the BMGR East is in direct support of the 56th Fighter Wing mission (along with supporting the 355th and 162nd Wings) and is an essential part in training the world’s greatest fighter pilots and combat ready Airmen. The services provided are unique as it incorporates the mission of one single unit encompassing a variety of skill sets including scientists, operations and airspace specialists. They direct all operational environment stewardship activities to ensure sustained range operations. They are also responsible for the 11 million acres of airspace assigned to Luke Air Force Base. In resolving airspace and land management issues, they liaise directly with 15 separate Federal and State of Arizona agencies well as 26 Native American tribes.
The U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, develops doctrinally founded MI professionals and drives Intelligence Warfighting Function force modernization across Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership & Education, Personnel, Facilities & Policy, enabling our Army to compete and win in Large Scale Combat Operations against peer threats in multi-domain contested environments through Army 2030 to Army 2040.