Two NATO air operations centers tested an aerial refueling planning application developed by the U.S. Air Force's software factory during separate exercises in Italy and Spain in Sept. 2021.
According to one NATO official, the JIGSAW software impressed the alliance that it was immediately implemented as the primary application for arranging tanker fuel missions, Kessel Run said Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Clow, the NATO Foreign Military Sales officer for JIGSAW, pointed out that the Kessel Run software makes mission planning 800 percent faster than the alliance's legacy method with half the manpower and time required.
“When the user says ‘I trust this. This works the way I think about doing this task and I don't need to use that legacy method anymore,’ that is the ultimate datapoint – the user,” explained Clow.
Earlier in 2021, Kessel Run partnered with NATO Headquarters, Supreme Allied Command Transformation to deliver JIGSAW as part of a foreign military sale.
Used by the Department of Defense since 2017, the software has since saved over $500 million in fuel costs and shortened the time to organize and execute refueling missions.