SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central)’s Command Battle Lab recently concluded a successful Hackathon at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, from Sept. 9-12, 2025. The event brought together Airmen of various career fields, industry experts and academic researchers to collaborate on innovative solutions designed to enhance operational efficiency and bolster warfighting capabilities for the Combined Forces Air Component Commander.
The Battle Lab welcomed participants and observers alike. The four-day event centered around five key challenges and addressed real-world operational use cases. Participants developed cutting-edge solutions, and the final judging and awards celebrated their ingenuity.
“This is the fourth iteration of the Hackathon that the AFCENT Battle Lab has conducted,” said Master Sgt. Darren Heller, the senior enlisted leader of the AFCENT Battle Lab. “This one was distinctly satisfying because while the use cases were very specific, we had input from the majority of the directorates. AFCENT/A6 (Communications Directorate) in particular was vital to the advancement of our drone swarming capability as their insights shaped how we can employ thousands of sUAS autonomously and simultaneously.”
The five use cases included:
- Drone Swarming: Exploring single-interface drone management, secure mission parameter updates mid-flight, and optimized network infrastructure.
- Joint Automated Warfighting System Large Language Model: Aimed at improved targeting and drone tasking through proprietary AI.
- Awards Dashboard: Developing a Microsoft Power BI solution to automate the awards and decoration process, projected to save 2,500-3,500 hours annually and eliminating an estimated 10,000 emails per six-month deployment rotation.
- Nebula: Creating a centralized health status dashboard for all AFCENT intelligence systems, applications, and programs to enhance situational awareness and reduce downtime.
- Project Eagle: Transforming weekly activity report data into a dynamic dashboard providing a comprehensive overview of safety posture and operational status.
Teams received guidance and support from technical experts throughout the event, fostering collaboration between diverse groups and ensuring a wide range of perspectives contributed to the solutions.
“The teams’ engagement this week was a masterclass in what can be accomplished when people are focused on delivering results to the warfighter through cooperative engagement within teams, pushed by competitive engagement across teams,” said Col. Tory Kindrick, the chief innovation officer of AFCENT. “ Airmen and civilians from multiple units and a variety of industry partners leveraged their expertise and skills to drive together toward practical solutions to make the warfighters’ life better.”
The AFCENT Battle Lab is heavily focused on rapid innovation to meet the ever-changing landscape in the USCENTCOM area of responsibility. Their work, in conjunction with forged partnerships with civilian contractors and academic contributors, aims to apply data-driven solutions to the modern challenges faced by AFCENT Airmen.
“This is Airmen proving that they are the innovative key to successful problem solving!” Kindrick said. “Whether tackling a direct tasking from the commander or a user-identified problem set, our AFCENT Airmen are analyzing issues, identifying requirements, and using their expertise and creativity to quickly find solutions – everything from concepts needing further exploration toward a final product all the way to fully-developed solutions ready to implement.”
Hackathon 25.4 concluded with actionable data to further development of prototype efforts, with some use cases ready for immediate implementation.
The Battle Lab comprises Airmen with specific skill sets, regardless of if that skillset is related to their primary career field in the Air Force.
For additional background information on the efforts of the Battle Lab, please see the related article covering Hackathon 25.3