innovation

Infrastructure Readiness in USSF
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Infrastructure Readiness In The United States Space Force

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The men and women of the US military have been protecting and defending the space domain for decades—well before the existence of the United States Space Force. Evolving threats in space drive the country to think differently about how we protect and defend that domain to ensure freedom of maneuver for future generations. Protection begins in facilities supported by robust infrastructure systems that house command and control nodes for space operators worldwide. USSF’s civil engineers have created new standards and are implementing them to measure and track readiness of the facilities and infrastructure directly supporting and inextricably linked to mission success in space.

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OTH, Emerging Security Environment, Multi-Domain Operations
Featured New 

Human-led Machine Learning & Advanced Threats: Case Method Inquiry and Visual Analytics Applied to COVID-19

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In a pervasive and complex information environment, analytics are vital to understanding advanced threats. As we rely more on machine-learnt results, asking the right questions and visualizing deep analysis are key to grasping and solving problems. These skills are also vital 21st century leadership tools that can forge a common focus among otherwise stove-piped specialists.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an urgent threat that requires both scientific understanding and decisive leadership. The cause of the disease is SARS CoV-2, a mutating virus that thrives in conditions difficult to control at scale. To counter this threat, this article demonstrates in detail the potential of human-led case method and machine-provided visual analytics.

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OTH, Emerging Security Environment, Multi-Domain Operations
New 

Artificial Intelligence in the Operational Information Environment: The Need for Proactive Doctrine

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Joint operations doctrine omits the agency of artificial intelligence (AI) in the operational information environment, which is a problem. This commentary discusses why, and recommends effective changes. Key points are as follows. AI is becoming an autonomous cause of unanticipated effects. Humans are not the most effectively intelligent actors in all environments, yet our doctrine draws lessons from the past rather than anticipating emergent futures. Machines currently excel in experience-based learning and can discover relationships in data that we cannot discern. Humans can intuit, deceive, somewhat control, and manufacture and destroy machines. In time, AI will be able to perform those cognitive, informational and physical functions as well. As out-thought becomes out-fought, we need proactive doctrine now.

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OTH, Emerging Security Environment, Multi-Domain Operations
Featured 

May We Mutate

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The DoD, with all its branches and organizations, has adopted a model of pursuing innovation that creates peripheral spaces for experimentation and development, which has proven effective to an extent. The next steps to becoming inherently and organically innovative require focusing on the internal characteristics of the institution and its various bodies, from both cultural and systemic perspectives, to identify where mutation and adaptability can be incorporated into the smallest component parts. By adopting these measures, innovations can emerge organically from within their unique context, and those developed at the periphery can be adopted more easily and effectively, as adaptation enables more contextually appropriate integration.

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Using Prizes to Harness the Power of the Population

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By: Michael Carlson Estimated reading time: 5 minutes The United States (US) Air Force proudly proclaims it has been “breaking

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Featured Multi Domain Operations 

A Bomber for the Navy

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Rather that sending the B-1 Lancer into early retirement, the Department of Defense could transfer it to the Navy for duty as a land-based ship-killer.

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OTH, multi-domain operations, emerging security environment
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Innovation Madness: Accepting Risk Today to Avoid Defeat Tomorrow

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The United States Air Force (USAF) recognizes a need for future innovations as near-peer competitors make rapid advancements in military capabilities. However, the current USAF system does not facilitate keeping up with these competitors. Innovation requires a cultural shift regarding risk acceptability at all levels, starting with leaders. The USAF can facilitate this shift by further addressing regulatory guidance and Professional Military Education programs. Until the USAF as an organization is willing to accept risks and ultimately failures to achieve success, mission impacting innovations will continue to be elusive.

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OTH, multi-domain operations, emerging security environment
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Forget “The Frozen Middle”: This mysterious layer of bureaucracy is not an insurmountable obstacle to innovation, even if it did exist.

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The frozen middle is a term that we, as the AF, need to move past. Airmen need the courage to try, courage to fail, and the top cover to try again. It isn’t going to be easy or comfortable, but it is necessary.

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Changing change while it changes: The rise of disruptive military thinking (Part 3 of 3)

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Militaries need to introduce design education as early as possible; cadets and privates need to experience design.

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Featured 

Changing change while it changes: The rise of disruptive military thinking (Part 2 of 3)

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Military design is about constantly changing, transforming, challenging, and disrupting.

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OTH, multi-domain operations, emerging security environment
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Changing change while it changes: The rise of disruptive military thinking (Part 1 of 3)

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Many of the seemingly successful mechanical planning processes of the last two centuries are now holding us back

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OTH, multi-domain operations, emerging security environment
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Igniting a Cultural Insurgency in the Acquisition Community: Part II

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A cultural reform in DOD acquisitions and USAF professional development is critical to timely delivery of capability to the warfighter.

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Icarus
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#RescueIcarus: A Manifesto for Heroic Innovation

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Excerpt: The moral of the myth is not—as we’ve been taught—to value Daedalus’s pragmatism over Icarus’s playfulness, but rather that

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OTH; Over the Horizon; Multi Domain;
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Leading Distributed Teams: Theory and Practice (Part 2)

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Leaders must purposefully plan how they will engage and conduct business within their own distributed organization by defining each team’s

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OTH, multi-domain operations, emerging security environment
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Avoiding the Early Bird– Innovation in the US Air Force

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“The early bird gets the worm. The early worm… gets eaten” – Norm Augustine With support from the highest levels

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The Laird-Packard Way: Unpacking Defense Acquisition Policy

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Exploring David Packard’s leadership in defense acquisitions may help guide the path for present day acquisition reform.

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Commentary 

Designing Through Complexity and Human Conflict

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Rather than focus on specific or contextual concerns within a single conflict or foreign policy approach, we ought to consider

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OTH, multi-domain operations, emerging security environment
Multimedia 

OTH Video: Interview with Lt Gen Jeff “Cobra” Harrigian

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At the end of the day it’s about killing and surviving. To do that, we’ve got to go faster and think beyond just air, space, and cyber.

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Innovation from the Bottom-Up: How Design Thinking Can Transform the Air Force Culture

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Incorporating Silicon Valley’s design thinking methods can revolutionize the way the Department of Defense approaches innovation.

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Multimedia 

Interview with Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan: Part 2

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Excerpt: In an interview, Lt Gen Jack Shanahan shares his vision for the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning

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Commentary 

DROP ZONE: The Rise of the Machines

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Although the machines have not taken over, swarms offer a solution to the problem of accessing contested areas and destroying challenging target sets.

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Featured Multi Domain Operations 

Multi-Domain Operations Security

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OPSEC is one of many information related capabilities that must evolve in the next few years to ensure our military protects its future critical information.

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Featured 

War as a Living Phenomenon: Change from and Continuity with the Past in Warfare

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War is a living, multiform and complex phenomenon in perpetual motion, where there is no culmination point. The future of war is both decided by a slow-pace adaptation to experiences and history and radical innovations.

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Featured 

Understanding Change: Improve, Innovate, or Create?

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Innovation is not an end in and of itself, but rather a tool that can be used to achieve a desired end.
By Jon Farley

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