SAN ANTONIO —
Airmen and Guardians from across the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force are invited to take part in FORCECON 2022: Innovation – Technology – Gaming, an interactive industry and academia collider event and gaming competition being held at the Tech Port Center and Arena here May 24-29, 2022.
Air Education and Training Command and the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center personnel, in partnership with and hosted by the University of Texas-San Antonio’s SBDC Center for Government Contracting, will participate in a two day event with industry May 24-25 to share the service’s current force development, innovation and installation management gaps and challenges in a concerted effort to change design processes to improve effectiveness and efficiency. The collider event is part of a deliberate action to align efforts with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr.’s Action Order – Airmen, focused on developing the force, and Action Order – Bureaucracy, which outlines the need to speed up decision-making processes with a goal of allowing more space for innovation.
“We must widen our network of collaborators to accelerate the ways we develop the force,” said Col. Thomas Wegner, AETC’s Director of Analysis and Innovation. “We know that, for the Air Force to outpace an adversary’s decision cycles, we have to increase the speed and efficiency with which we work with industry. The private sector is an integral partner to meet some of our most pressing talent development and operational priorities.”
During the AETC Innovation Day and the Force Development and Installation & Mission Support Industry Day, Airmen will have the chance to learn how to connect with industry and small business advisors, as well as learn from both the AFWERX and Defense Innovation Unit teams. Additionally, the winners of the AETC iChallenge will be announced May 24 and AETC’s Detachment 23 will host a special presentation outlining how they support and assist with force development initiatives across the Air Force enterprise.
FORCECON 2022 will also feature the Air Force Gaming team hosting the Armed Forces E-Sports championships May 28 (featuring Halo Infinite) and the Air Force Gaming Minor League Worlds Championship May 29.
The goal for AETC is to modernize force development with commercially available solutions, strengthen military, industry, and academia relations in order to accelerate change, foster successful teaming with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), and synchronize efforts across major commands and service innovation entities.
During the event, AFIMSC looks to collaborate on technologies in the following focus areas that support augmented reality/virtual reality/extended reality; artificial intelligence/machine learning; data transformation; operationalizing small unmanned aerial systems for installations; and robotic process automation.
The United States Air Force Gaming League is an inclusive organization of Air Force and Space Force for all ages, ranks, and backgrounds. USAFGL has established a unified hub for community and competition, to allow Airmen and Guardians to build resiliency through competitive leagues while promoting retention, teamwork, and mental well-being for service members around the world.
By Dan Hawkins, Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs