Describing itself as a “federation” of digital teams, the group works for and with a host of Wright-Patterson and Air Force missions, including Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), the National Air and Space Intelligence Center and others.
Born of a memorandum of understanding between AFIT and AFRL, Hangar 18 was the 17th Air Force software factory created since the Air Force launched its digital transformation efforts in 2017.
Hangar 18 puts Dayton and Wright-Patterson on that list. “Why isn’t Dayton represented? Let’s get Ohio on the map,” Hangar 18 Director Matthew Jacobsen said in an Air Force release last year.
“Our workforce certainly is growing, as is our portfolio,” James Fourman, a software developer with UES Inc., said in Wednesday’s online meeting.
Hangar 18 is working on 30 or so different projects in varying stages of completion, Fourman said. And the organization is happy to work with other Department of Defense software factories.
“We are doing our best to work with others and say, ‘Hey, if you guys need something that other software factories are doing, we can definitely talk with them,’” he said.
The group is essentially a mix of federal employees, military, and civilian, with about 70 contractors at present, Jacobsen said. It does not work for private entities.
One problem members seek to ease is data interoperability, helping organizations communicate, securely sharing and sending data where it needs to go to get missions accomplished.
“How can I get the data from the flightline all the way up to my desk without having to carry around a hard drive or sending through FedEx or being encrypted along the way,” Fourman said.
“We definitely propagate tools, methods and education,” Jacobsen said Wednesday.
There are “cool” digital tools out there created by teams or people who don’t have a way to offer those tools to others, Jacobsen said. Hangar 18 can help with that, acting as a nexus to get software from a creator’s desktop to users who need it.
“We are not just software development. We are definitely focusing on that and other agile and DevSecOps,” Jacobsen said, using the Air Force terms for quick responsiveness and software security.
“There’s quite a bit of knowledge across the Hangar 18 crew,” said Col. Robert Larkin, an AFIT scholar.
The need for speed is urgent. Recall that when Nick Chaillan, the former Pentagon chief software officer, resigned in 2021, he said the nation’s “failure” to respond to cyber and other threats from China and elsewhere was putting the U.S. at risk.
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years,” Chaillan told the Financial Times in October 2021. “Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion.”
“So we said, ‘Let’s move fast to start creating and delivering tools and capabilities,” Jacobsen said last year.
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