FORT BRAGG, N.C. — For the first time ever, the XVIII Airborne Corps will partner with Army Futures Command to co-host the seventh installment of the innovative series Dragon’s Lair. This next edition of the “Shark Tank”-style competition will take place Aug. 16 in Austin, Texas.
In August 2020, the XVIII Airborne Corps, known as America’s Contingency Corps, developed Dragon’s Lair as a way to give soldiers of any rank across the corps a platform to convey their innovative ideas and concepts to civilian technical experts and senior military leaders. This new partnership with AFC will now bring ideas to the forefront of the Army’s premier institution, which is charged with modernizing the Army and its future readiness at a faster rate.
After five successful iterations of the program, the XVIII Airborne Corps realized that Dragon’s Lair could go beyond the Army’s reach and decided to open it up to all military service members across the Defense Department to seek more innovators and diversity of ideas across the joint force.
The partnership with AFC brings an opportunity to unlock new ideas for the advancement of the U.S. military. In the past, Dragon’s Lair has taken the previously unsought ideas of a cooling apparatus for body armor, an algorithm to predict a building’s layout, an app for the exceptional family member program, and an armored vehicle safety system, and it has elevated them to the next level for the betterment service members.
DOD service members can submit their innovative ideas on the Dragon Innovation website. Users must create an account, which does not require a Common Access Card and is available from civilian systems. All concepts must have a description of the innovation and the problem being addressed. Ideas must be submitted to the site by July 24, 2022, to be eligible for consideration for Dragon’s Lair 7.
Story by SGT Maxine Baen
Photos by SGM Alejandro Licea and SGT Marygian Barnes