Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio has been designated as the 17th software factory of the Department of the Air Force.
Even before the new designation, Hangar 18 is already full of digital teams and assets from across the service branch that work together to provide warfighters with software and data capabilities, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Thursday.
Matthew Jacobsen, director of Hangar 18, explained that his organization hosting the collaborative team of AFRL, Department of the Air Force and Air Force Institute of Technology opens access to broader contract vehicles and funding opportunities for starting digital modernization projects.
Jacobsen added that the newly designated software factory also serves as a communications hub to avoid redundancy of software programs and partners with technology companies to accelerate the deployment of digital capabilities.
“We have multiple tools and environments in our portfolio, we have multiple areas of specialty between our teams, and, ultimately, you can see that our mission is to use these assets to solve real problems and create pathways to success for teams struggling in the data and software space,” explained the official.
Software factories, spurred into creation by the Air Force Science and Technology Strategy for 2030, fall in line with the digital engineering initiative of former service acquisition chief and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient Will Roper.