FA864924P0640

Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) Phase I

NOMAD: Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Deploying Unit Tasking

Information is central to all military functions but is critical in logistics and mobilization. The more trustworthy data a Deploying Unit has accessible and available, the faster a tactical asset can reach the fight. Rapid and reliable access to mobilization information is key to maintaining an enduring tactical advantage in peace and crisis. As the network of data sources and decision-makers grows, as does the urgency to respond to emerging situations, so does the demand for the Department of Air Force (DAF) to discover innovative solutions that enable the secure collection, processing, monitoring, analyzing, and communicating of personnel deployment data at speed and scale like never before. Mobility today relies on multiple manual trackers, which are time-consuming, rife with redundancies, and susceptible to inaccuracy, degrading overall operational efficiencies. There is an opportunity to research if RAWHIDE, a digital deployment ecosystem pathfinder selected by the HAF/A4 to automate and speed up DAF Deployments, can also be extended to accelerate personnel mobilization. Deploying Units, Unit Deployment Managers' (UDM), and downrange Combatant Commanders (COCOM) need the ability to ingest and curate large amounts of deploying passenger movement data from 20 sources, including 13 siloed and non-federated systems. Decision makers need to quickly understand and access massive influxes and variables of mobilization-related information and trust the validity and accuracy of underlying data so they can confidently respond as situations unfold. Installation Deployment Officers (IDO) reported that a single 100-person movement takes a single UDM 2-5 days to process and task personnel. Across the 3000+ DAF Squadrons, vast inconsistencies exist between UDM experience levels and unique squadron needs. Many UDMs design and utilize their own customizable standalone trackers, which have limited universal usability and opportunity to scale. Additionally, the current personnel tasking process is not flexible or agile enough to support emergency taskings, tight deadlines, or non-standard ACE mobilizations. These nonconnected data points hinder flexibility and adaptability in ever-changing operational environments, ultimately distracting commanders from finding the best personnel fit for the tasking and instead simply selecting the first available candidate. We calculate that over 18 users and work centers interact with and need these segregated data points daily; however, the current systems cannot provide on-demand multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to meet the everchanging and evolving mission landscape. Today, deployment execution is hampered by antiquated manual processes. Feedback suggests that MCDA software solution, like our proposed NOMAD application, could result in an estimated 80% reduction in personnel processing time, resulting in the reallocation of +20K UDM man-hours across DAF Deployments

The goal of phase I is to establish the technical merit, feasibility, and commercial potential of proposed R&D efforts and determine the quality of performance of the small business awardee organization.

AFX245-PCSO1

FX245-PCSO1-0025

X24.5

Meghan Scott