For saying « All aviation policies, schemes, and systems are dictated by non-flying officers of the Army or Navy who know practically nothing about it. » Army Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell was consequently court martialed.” Project B (1925)
Published Dec. 13, 2021 — Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs —
Washington D.C. — (AFNS) — The Air Force’s new STITCHES Warfighter Application Team, or SWAT, in close coordination with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, AFWERX, Air Combat Command, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and others are organizing the first known Department of Defense-wide classified innovation hackathon called BRAVO @ Nellis Jan. 5-12 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
A hackathon is an innovation event commonly employed by security communities and technology companies, in which teams self-form and develop working prototypes urgently in response to challenges often accompanied with data.
In an unprecedented collaboration of Air Force, Navy, Army, and Department of Defense civilians along with an expected 10+ industry companies, hackers – data scientists, product managers and engineers – will rapidly prototype capabilities of their choosing on Air Force Weapons System data with mentorship from Air Force and DoD leaders.
Unlike other DoD technical environments, BRAVO will allow hackers to bring open source or proprietary software into the environment quickly, such as the JAIC’s Joint Common Foundation development platform. This allows for unprecedented software collaboration to be used on classified DoD data.
“I began planning this hackathon with a peer, Jimmy Jones, this summer while still at DARPA before being hired by the USAF,” said Stuart Wagner, chief digital transformation officer for the Department of the Air Force. “We realized the extent of underleveraged raw data available from various Air Force weapons systems and we wanted to fundamentally shift Joint All Domain activities from talk and imagine exercises to development exercises on real weapons system data.”
Wagner, a former software developer at Microsoft, coded a sex trafficking disruption prototype on a winning Microsoft hackathon team after just three months working there. That capability, now known as Freedom Signal, has since scaled to dozens of police departments and non-profit organizations around the United States.
“This is a beta test of a radical military innovation model that will allow any capable DoD civilians or military members to build and validate capability and impact U.S. and foreign partner national security after one week of effort. Once we validate our model, we will scale this to 500+ inter-service, inter-agency, foreign partner hackers,” Wagner said.
The BRAVO hackathon series is named from Project B, a 1921 series of joint Army-Navy target exercises conducted on surplus ships in response to Army Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell’s claim that bombers sink battleships. This claim undermined the then current investments and strategy of the Navy and then Department of War.
Ostfriesland bombed by Brig Gen Mitchell (September 1921) – US Air Force photo
Project B proved bombers beat battleships and kickstarted a century of airpower innovation. Although the exercises validated Army Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell’s claim that bombers sink battleships, he was never promoted to a role to lead the change. In 1925, he provided a lengthy statement, summarized as: « All aviation policies, schemes, and systems are dictated by non-flying officers of the Army or Navy who know practically nothing about it. » He was consequently court martialed.”
Project B was authorized by SECWAR and SECNAV to disprove and disgrace Mitchell by demonstrating the insignificance of airpower. Mitchell instead directed his bombers to destroy all the test ships, changing military strategy, defense resourcing for aeronautics and aircraft carriers, and ultimately the Department of War by proving the need for a separate Air Force military department.
Project B was authorized by SECWAR and SECNAV to disprove and disgrace Mitchell by demonstrating the insignificance of airpower. Mitchell instead directed his bombers to destroy all the test ships, changing military strategy, defense resourcing for aeronautics and aircraft carriers, and ultimately the Department of War by proving the need for a separate Air Force military department.
Styled off Project B, BRAVO hackathons are sponsored by senior DoD leaders to provide technical and cultural innovation environments that enable government and industry to test and validate bold ideas on real DoD data. These events align under Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ. Brown, Jr.’s Sept. 17, 2021, memo requiring senior leaders to enable Airmen to experiment and innovate.
See also :
[1] « William Billy Mitchell – The father of the United States Air Force by Ms Minnie L Jones » (IMCOM) (2019-10-17) and William « Billy » Mitchell: Un visionnaire en court martiale
William « Billy » Mitchell
Pilot, Military Leader, & Promotor
Born: December 29, 1879 in Nice, France
Death: February 19, 1936
Enshrined: 1966
Became the youngest captain in the U.S. Army at age 23 and the youngest officer ever assigned to the General Staff of the War Department in Washington at 32. He was one of the first to understand and advocate the need for a stronger and more independent Air Force.
Learned to fly in 1916 and commanded an aviation section in the Signal Corps.
First American officer to fly over enemy lines.
William « Billy » Mitchell — Joined General Pershing’s staff in Europe in July 1917 and helped form the American Expeditionary Forces Aviation Program. Organized 98 squadrons into pursuit, bombers, and observation over 80 miles to support the St. Mihiel offensive.
Demonstrated the value of air power by sinking three captured German warships. They later sank three obsolete U.S. battleships.
Served as the unofficial leader in the struggle for the recognition of air power, and in 1925 he was court-martialed for his view, controversial statements and articles regarding air power.
Posthumously awarded special Medal of Honor in 1946 by Congress.
Source : National Aviation Hall of Fame (Enshrined 1966)
Also see :
« William Billy Mitchell – The father of the United States Air Force by Ms Minnie L Jones » (IMCOM) (2019-10-17) & William « Billy » Mitchell: Un visionnaire en cour martiale de Ms. Minnie L. Jones, IMCOM (17.10.2019)
