Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Air Force brings defense planning into 21st century through modern softwarePublished July 30, 2019
                    
                    By Corrie Poland
                    
                    
                    Air Force Operational Energy (SAF/IEN)
            **ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) --**You wake up and check your smart phone for the latest weather and news of the day. As you roll out of bed, your phone tells you the best route to work based on up-to-date traffic patterns and congestion. Pulling out of your driveway, the gas light blinks on and you ask your phone to reroute you to the closest gas station on your way to work. Your estimated time to work adjusts accordingly. Along the road, your side mirror lights up as passing cars speed by, letting you know there’s someone in your blind spot. The GPS directs you to take the next exit in 1,000 feet and you begin turning off the highway. As you pull into the parking lot, your car app reads a coworker’s text to you over the stereo and advises you to park in the rear due to construction. Once you’ve parked, you seamlessly switch to your smartwatch to respond and head into the office.
For many Americans, this scenario is a familiar part of our routines. Yet, for much of the defense community, the ease and functionality of modern technology is not translated to military planning systems. While cumbersome acquisitions processes, funding issues and security concerns are often valid causes, many Department of Defense processes (and any software associated with them) cannot compete with the technology many Americans use regularly. In one corner the U.S. Air Force flies the most advanced aircraft in the world, yet in the other corner, Airmen use clunky spreadsheets and paper documents to analyze operations and mission plans.
As technology evolves exponentially for our day-to-day lives, the Department of Defense has historically struggled to keep up with the latest software and innovation. In a **2018 address** to Airmen, former Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson stated, “In a world where far more innovation is happening outside the government than inside of it, connecting to that broader scientific enterprise is absolutely vital to our future.
“Sharpening our competitive edge in this new age will require creative approaches, innovation, resources and execution at the speed of relevance,” Wilson continued. “The advantage will go to those who create the best technologies and who integrate and field them in creative operational ways that provide military advantages.”
A little over a year later in April 2019, the Air Force published a new **Science and Technology Strategy**, encouraging Airmen to once again push beyond the status quo and build an “Air Force that dominates time, space and complexity in future conflict across all operating domains to project power and defend the homeland.” The strategy lays out three main objectives: (1) develop and deliver transformational strategic capabilities, (2) reform the way science and technology is led and managed and (3) deepen and expand the scientific and technical enterprise.
While organizations and initiatives such as AFWERX, Spark Tank and Defense Innovation Unit, among others, provide a solid base for relaunching this effort, a culture of innovation is brewing below the surface among smaller offices and units.
For example, as part of its vision to increase combat capability through optimized aviation fuel use, **Air Force Operational Energy** discovered mission planners were using spreadsheets and email chains to design critical fuel logistics operational plans.
“Our current primary means of planning is by Excel modeling to answer a specific question. These models require constant cleansing of data, manual input into the model and management of the model as data changes,” said operational energy planner Derek Reid, based out of Pacific Air Force Headquarters at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. Further complicating matters is the burden of distributing updates to the spreadsheet model, which often requires planners to email the spreadsheet back and forth and then look for updates.
This realization prompted the office to lead and fund the development of a fuel logistics software that enables mission planners to automatically calculate (and securely share) the demand of petroleum, oil and lubricants at operating locations, while determining optimal routing (and replenishment) of POL to defense fuel storage terminals. Using the Joint Operational Energy Modeling System capability, this innovative visual tool – scheduled to launch in 2019 – will be critical to detecting possible gaps in fuel availability – and therefore capability – more quickly and accurately.
Tools like **Jigsaw**, a tanker planning software for aerial refueling (and its forthcoming update, Pythagoras, which will enable autonomous planning) and **Magellan**, a tanker allocation and planning software, are other examples of how the Air Force is streamlining mission planning using modern software. Future Air Force Operational Energy initiatives include incorporating these planning tools into wargaming to help Airmen ‘practice the way they play.’
“We’re excited to be a part of how the Air Force is becoming more innovative and modern,” said Mike Penland, Air Force Operational Energy principal director. “Our Airmen deserve tools and resources that will make their lives easier so they can focus on the mission at hand.”
The call for smarter, faster and more innovative technology is ringing throughout the Pentagon hallways and one by one, DoD offices are picking up.energy 



technology 



innovation 



fuel 



software 



modern 



science 



FS 



defense planning 



readiness 



competitive edge 



science and technology strategy 



jigsaw 



magellan 



Air Force Operational Energy 



Pythagoras 



autonomous planning 



wargaming 



AFwerX 



Spark Tank 



Air Force 



AF Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fight
                    
                    SecAF Kendall AFA Warfare Symposium Q&A: Reoptimizing for Great Power CompetitionInnovation
                AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalists
                    
                    Chief Digital, Artificial Intelligence Office to host hackathon in HawaiiMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil