KR on action: ‘The biggest risk is not taking one’

By Damany Coleman Kessel Run Public Affairs

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BOSTON (February 28, 2023) – Defense Department and military-centric organizations around the globe are very familiar with the eternal bias for action balancing act. Decisions at every level are made by assuming a certain level of risk. Kessel Run is no different.

What impact do your decisions have? How are you owning your time in your job, relationships or life?

Questions like these were asked during the organization’s own Celebrate Kessel Run Day recently, with the theme being ‘Bias for Action,’ one of KR’s core values.

Celebrate Kessel Run Days, better known as CKRs, are quarterly observances to promote collaboration, networking and diversity, equity and inclusion. Call it their own way of culture consulting or human enablement.

Throughout the bustling work-from-work day, volunteers gave testimonies of how the decisions they’ve made, or have yet to, affect them personally and professionally. Bias for Action seems to be the body of Kessel Run’s favorite core value out of the four. Continuous Evolution, Intense Customer Focus and Ideas Over Rank are the other three.

The guest speaker for the event was Chief Master Sergeant Jason A. David , who currently serves as the Senior Enlisted Advisor for the Defense Media Activity in Maryland. He is also the Senior Enlisted Leader for Headquarters, American Forces Network & Media Production Operations, as well as a father, husband, Purple Heart recipient, warrior poet and proud Asian American and Pacific Islander ambassador.

David, who rose rapidly through the enlisted ranks, shared some anecdotes and war stories of great loss and trepidation, but essentially left the audience with this electric adage: Do what you have to do, even if it scares you.

“It's been a bumpy ride for those that are used to doing things because ‘that's the way it's always been.’” he declared. “I feel like a lot of you in this room can feel that to your core, because you’re moving fast. A road must first be traveled on to then prove that it can be paved for benefit later.”

To keep it simple, here are three powerful insights we’ve synthesized from things Kessel Runners said during their bias for action-based affirmations throughout the day:

• Colin Powell’s 40/70 rule applies to Bias for Action: Leaders need between 40 and 70 percent of the information to make a decision. Decide with less than 40 percent and you’re likely to make a mistake. Waiting for more than 70 percent means you’ll likely be late.
• Holding on to undesirable patterns can hurt us more than disrupting said patterns would.
• Choosing to be courageous, with every cell in your body, reprograms who you are.

It’s worth noting that this ecosystem is crammed with individuals who have all made some sort of promise to encourage peace, freedom and FAWS (food, air, water, shelter) in every corner of the globe.

Can we harness that boundless patriotic energy? The short answer is yes.

Luckily for us, the illustrious Chief shared the long answer too.

“It’s important to remember that you have the power to take action and make a difference,” David said. “Taking action is not always easy, especially when we’re uncertain about the outcome. The only way to create the change we’d like to see in our Air Force is to then take a moment to look at our personal lives, our communities or the global scale at large, and take action to make sure we separate ourselves from those who dream of a better future and those who would like to make it a reality.”

Aloha, Chief. Heard. Folks of many colors and creeds have taken powerful oaths or signed on a dotted line somewhere with a sister organization. The consensus is that Kessel Runners are all taking healthy, calculated risks to benefit themselves as well as the warfighters down range.

Today, think of all of KR’s command and control efforts and efforts pivoting toward the Pacific. To encourage the pacing threat to make better choices, we will always have work to do. The work we put in today can foster peace in perpetuity, but the progress we’ve made so far is considerable.

Even with our distributed force during this remote work renaissance, our organization’s continuous evolution depends on strong characters, like David, to pat us on the back or give us a gentle nudge in the right direction.

Another great person who excels at checking our biases is Lauren Knausenberger, the Chief Information Officer for the Department of the Air Force, who also visited KR recently.

“My first visit to Kessel Run was a number of years ago when this merry band of rebellious innovators literally had to smuggle agile DevSecOps into the Department of Defense, " she said during a recent visit. “And thus, Kessel Run was born.”

She noted that KR today is very different from when it started. Back then, Knausenberger was still the Chief Transformation Officer, which was even before the Space Force entity existed at all.

“We were working on problems like, how do we bring a culture of innovation? How do we help people to understand DevSecOps? How do we introduce user centered design to a group of people that haven’t really thought of this before?”

Knausenberger suggested that consistently deploying incredible mission operations, at speeds never before seen in the DoD, are the way Kessel Run, and others, stay a beacon of hope in the fog of war.

“I have matured my perspective and it's awesome to see that Kessel Run, too, is kind of all grown up in their perspective now; Going from a startup to an organization that has to scale,” she stated. “It is really incredible to see the continued mission success and that level of maturity, without losing the initial innovation and all of that cultural work this organization has done within the Department of Defense and within the Department of the Air force.”

Last month, Knausenberger said that her agency is focusing its modernization efforts to help speed up mission system migrations to the cloud.

Kessel Run is fully embracing the strategic direction and hopes to be a leader in the transition. There will always be uncertainty and challenges with such technical changes, but moving out with a level of uncertainty is how Kessel Run started. Had KR waited for everything to be perfect before smuggling DevSecOps into the DoD, instead of taking action, they’d still be waiting.

Since authorities like David and Knausenberger agree on such points, it seems the challenges Kessel Runners faced along their journey were tell-tale signs they were heading in the right direction.

Keep going, Kessel Run. Take action as if our lives depended on it, because they do.

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Digital Directorate
HBB, Kessel Run
Media and Communications Engagement
Email: media@kr.af.mil

Kessel Run’s C2IMERA featured at Red Flag

By Richard Blumenstein, Public Affairs Officer, Kessel Run

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NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (February 22, 2023) – Red Flag-Nellis 23-1 integrated a Kessel Run application into its operations for the first time this past January.

Close to 100 aircraft and 3,000 coalition service members participated in this large force air combat training exercise centered on readiness and interoperability between joint and allied forces. This iteration focused on the Indo-Pacific theater and the pacing challenge, alongside allied partners.

Red Flag is a multinational exercise held at Nellis three times a year, meant to test and prepare service members and coalition partners’ capabilities through various real-world scenarios.

Exercise planners used Kessel Run’s C2IMERA, or Command and Control Incident Management Emergency Response Application. Its software focuses on reporting, planning, force generation, emergency management, and command and control monitoring and execution.

“Aligning the development of agile combat employment concepts with this critical capability has been a priority of the 505th since Air Combat Command directed the fielding of C2IMERA at all installations in August 2021,” said Col. Adam Shelton, 505th Test and Training Group commander, Hurlburt Field, Florida. “Merging new employment concepts, maturing technology, and redesigned wing organizational structures is a complex task. However, the teamwork between the 705th Training Squadron cadre and Kessel Run professionals enabled the integration of C2IMERA into Red Flag 23-1 for the first time. This development will continue to improve future Red Flag training for wing command and control force elements and will set the stage to better prepare and certify wings prior to their commit phase of the Air Force Force Generation model.”

The application uses a common operating picture and dashboarding capabilities as communication tools, which consolidates and shares information for leaders, and boasts a plethora of features to provide C2 capabilities. These tools are customizable and optimized based on the individual needs of the installation and also focus on updating and communicating data in real time to give commanders a constant picture of their installations, environment, assets and personnel.

C2IMERA was employed throughout the training to give exercise participants in multiple locations a continuous picture, in real time, of assets, personnel, mishaps, aircraft, and munitions according to Master Sgt. Kirsten Sigerson, 355th Wing Command Post superintendent.

Multiple scenarios included downed aircraft, mishaps and personnel recovery. Sigerson said she was able to leverage C2IMERA to track information and report it to leadership in real time.

“C2IMERA is a system where we have a common installation picture,” said Sigerson. “You have a full picture of what is happening real time at the location viewing such as road closures, threats to buildings, or any kind of medical responses. Anyone with an account can see what's happening in real time.”

Kessel Run is a Division within Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Digital Directorate. Kessel Run is an Agile Software Development unit building a scalable software factory to architect, manufacture and operate Wing and Operational level Command and Control systems.

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Digital Directorate
HBB, Kessel Run
Media and Communications Engagement
Email: media@kr.af.mil

705th Training Squadron implements Kessel Run’s C2IMERA

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BOSTON (February 15, 2023) – The 505th Command and Control Wing’s 705th Training Squadron incorporated a Kessel Run application into the curriculum of their Lead Wing Command and Control Course (LWC2C) this past January.

The LWC2C is an Air Combat Command Lead Wing leadership training course for distributed operations in support of Agile Combat Employment, or ACE. ACE is a proactive and reactive operational scheme of maneuver executed within threat timelines to increase the survivability of forces while generating combat power through a deterrence continuum.

“The 505th is the lead ACC (Air Combat Command) organization tasked to develop ACE C2 academics, mature the training environments, and integrate into existing exercise venues,” said Col. Adam Shelton, 505th Test and Training Group commander, Hurlburt Field, Florida. “An inherent task within this effort is to incorporate the primary decision tools required of operational wings to execute C2 of dispersed forces.”

The application added, C2IMERA, stands for Command and Control Incident Management Emergency Response Application. It is an application focused on reporting, planning, force generation, emergency management, and command and control monitoring and execution.

“C2IMERA as the system of choice and the inclusion of this critical capability within our training portfolio is a no-brainer,” Shelton said. “As we continue to evolve and coalesce the development of both C2 training and C2IMERA technology, our hope is this partnership becomes a case study in successful implementation of DevSecOps (development, security and operations) for the service.”

The addition of C2IMERA is a sign of its further implementation across the Air Force. Its addition into the training is meant to explain the conceptual aspects of the application to Airmen and how to use it to plan at the Wing Level, according to Lt. Col. Benjamin Lee, 705th TRS director of operations.

“We are leveraging the exposure of Kessel Run’s C2IMERA training into TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) and ways to employ the training,” Lee said. “We are not teaching the button pushing of C2IMERA. We are teaching the concepts of the way C2IMERA could be used to facilitate information flow up to the operational level down to the wing level, and then down to the unit level.”

The application uses a common operating picture and dashboarding capabilities as communication tools, which consolidates and shares information for leaders, and boasts a plethora of features to provide C2 capabilities. These tools are customizable and optimized based on the individual needs of the installation and also focus on updating and communicating data in real-time to give commanders a constant picture of their installations, environment, assets and personnel.

In 2021, ACC and Air Mobility Command both directed C2IMERA for use across their installations. Now, the application is used by 69 Air Force Installations and more than 100 forward operating bases across the world.

The 705th Training Squadron reports to the 505th Test and Training Group headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida. The 705th TRS serves as the focal point for advanced Air Operations Center and Air Force Forces education and C2 process improvement and trains Air Combat Command’s Lead Wing ACE concepts. The squadron educates and trains AOC and AFFOR staff members of Combatant and Numbered Air Force Commanders, joint, and allied partners.

Kessel Run is a Division within Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Digital Directorate. Kessel Run is an Agile Software Development unit building a scalable software factory to architect, manufacture and operate Wing and Operational level Command and Control systems.

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Digital Directorate
HBB, Kessel Run
Media and Communications Engagement
Email: media@kr.af.mil

Unique Kessel Run culture essential for mission success

KR leaders focused on people, work experience to recruit, retain top talent

By Damany Coleman, Public Affairs Officer, Kessel Run

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BOSTON (8 February 2023) – Diverse talent + incredible culture = mission success. That seems like easy math, but for Kessel Run leadership, it’s a challenge they’re focused on year round.

Today, the clearest benchmark for success at Kessel Run would be to become a disciplined agile development organization while producing, delivering, and maintaining high quality software that delivers combat capability in high-end threat environments.

Everyone’s favorite paradox can be adopted obliquely here, as the chicken or the egg must precede the other, seemingly infinitely. At Kessel Run, the cause and effect chain breaks if they put products before their people, or people before products.

Over the past five years, the consensus has been to always, as neatly as possible (and within the bounds of bureaucracy) braid both priorities together: attract targeted talent and make useful software that will prevail in conflict.

“An organization independent of the individual personalities and heroics will endure over the long run,” said Col. Richard Lopez, the Senior Materiel Leader for Kessel Run, a division within Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Digital Directorate. “Creating a robust organization that will deliver for many years to come is our focus. To get there, we must concentrate on people and processes.”

According to the recent State of the Federal Cyber Workforce Report, not only did the COVID-19 pandemic expose the potential weaknesses of the Nation’s infrastructures, it also fundamentally changed how many “software factories” and other government services do business.

Heroics, as Lopez calls them, won’t improve how Kessel Run delivers or acquires software, nor will it help us modernize weapon systems for Air Operations Centers over the long haul.

The needs of the end-user are constantly being evaluated, with data security and architecture in mind. They’re also honing what it takes to produce onboarding programs that make sense, and streamlining how they spin-up new hires to make sure they have all the resources they need to succeed.

One of those initiatives is quarterly culture events, aptly named Celebrating Kessel Run, or CKR. Ideas Over Rank, one of KR’s four core values, was the theme of the first cultural day just last year.

CKR days are deliberate attempts to reflect on the Kessel Run journey that began back in 2017, and it's also a great opportunity for employees to talk shop, network and brainstorm. The next CKR’s theme will be “Bias For Action,” another core value. That event is slated for February.

One Kessel Run alum, Rob Murtha, now the Director of Innovation at Clarity, said that he’s always thought the core values integrated well at KR. “Bias For Action” is his dearest choice, in a tie for first place with “Intense Customer Focus.”

“I think (good culture) really starts with customer obsession,” said Murtha. “ I think that, and each individual's understanding of the ‘why’ behind KR is so much more important. It’s asking ourselves: What deliverables from a product perspective are translating to enhanced capability that will make this country safer?”

Murtha continued by saying that there will always be opportunities to optimize culture and build a healthy familiarity with bias for action, amongst other intangibles, without putting extra pressure on teams for outcomes.

Aaron Kristopik, a product designer on the All Domain Common Platform product line and attendee of the last cultural day event, said that Kessel Run has found success by continuously iterating on outcomes that matter to the individual, the organization and our most important stakeholders, the end-users.

“If you don't have a real outcome you’re striving toward, all you have is inputs and outputs,” said Kristopik. “And if there's no goal that you're striving towards, it’s all just numbers being added together for no real value whatsoever. So I think we should definitely take calculated risks where we can.”

Kristopik, a Marine Corps veteran who has been with KR since 2019, said that he thinks since Kessel Run has set a standard for creativity and innovation, getting our house in order has been a bit different than what’s going on at other Defense Department entities.

“The customer is specifically important because of that reason,” he said. “That's what we cherish and pride ourselves on. We still always need to think about how our decisions are going to impact our teams and our organization, as well as the end-user and the entire ecosystem.”

In recent months, and as Kessel Run continues to evolve throughout time, the standard for creativity and innovation will always be intertwined with our need for reliable, robust, and scalable applications. For years Kessel Run’s “Bias for Action,” and Murtha’s tie for favorite core value, “Intense Customer Focus,” were targeted at the applications that the warfighter interacted with.

The new focus, according to Lopez, is to “Make sure there is high availability of data and applications so our warfighters are always ready to fight.”

What we care about most now goes beyond what the warfighter sees on the screen. We’re acutely aware that this sentiment extends to the entire ecosystem, because, as Lopez continued, “you don’t really have a capability unless you can maintain.”

Leah Vincuilla Peterson, Chief People Officer at Kessel Run, said KR’s existence in the software and tech ecosystem is more important now than ever, with that context.

Peterson thinks the reason people consider a career here or with Kessel Run’s partners is because of the value of the work they do. We agree.

“The world has changed for a lot of people, so the government has to change how it markets itself to find those people,” Peterson said. “Kessel Run, for various reasons, has a responsibility to show everyone that there is a better way to attract, hire and keep diverse talent. Not only do people deserve to feel seen and heard, we also want them to know that they picked the right way to serve their country, working here at Kessel Run.”

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Digital Directorate
HBB, Kessel Run
Media and Communications Engagement
Email: media@kr.af.mil

Airfield Management Career Field implements C2IMERA Business Rules

By Richard Blumenstein, Public Affairs Officer, Kessel Run

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BOSTON (January 19, 2023) – The Air Force Flight Standard Agency published official business rules and information for Kessel Run’s C2IMERA and disseminated them across the Airfield Management Career Field this past October.

Headquarters Air Force Flight Standards Agency (HQ AFFSA) has the mission to provide strategic support to enable global combat power to the joint warfighter. The Airfield Management Career Field is responsible for providing a safe, efficient and effective airfield environment for aircraft operations. C2IMERA, which stands for Command and Control Incident Management Emergency Response Application, is an application focused on reporting, planning, force generation, emergency management, and command and control monitoring and execution.

“The use of this program is a significant step forward for us as Airfield Management is in need of modernization and streamlined processes to enhance our core capabilities and improve situational awareness,” said Chief Master Sgt. Sherri Knotts, the chief of Airfield Management Operations, Procedures and Training for HQ AFFSA. “The C2IMERA program holds a lot of hope for the 1C7X1 Airfield Management Career Field.”

The business rules disseminated by HQ AFFSA serve to provide guidance and standardization on key features of C2IMERA for the Airmen. They provide simplified explanations as well as tips for efficiency for installations that have on boarded and are actively using the application.

“When C2IMERA has been integrated across an installation, the efficiencies are noticeable immediately, for all aspects of the mission, whether it be for flying operations or normal around the installation,” Knotts said. “When all agencies are using C2IMERA, phone calls are reduced or nearly eliminated with the applications automatic notifications.”

In 2021, Air Combatant Command and Air Mobility Command both directed C2IMERA for use across their installations. Now, the application is used by 66 Air Force Installations and more than 100 forward operating bases across the world, according to Gwenn Haden, the C2IMERA program manager with Kessel Run.

“This is a huge step toward Air Force wide adoption of C2IMERA,” Haden said. “I think AFFSA issuing these business rules is a result of the relationships and trust we’ve built with them and our users.”

AFFSA is a field operating agency responsible to Air Force A3 and headquartered at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. They provide strategic support to enable global combat power for the joint warfighter. As the lead agency for Airfield Operations, AFFSA focuses on the systems, software, and strategic support given to operational commanders.

Kessel Run is a Division within Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Digital Directorate. Kessel Run is a Agile Software Development unit building a scalable software factory to architect, manufacture and operate Wing and Operational level Command and Control systems.

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Digital Directorate
HBB, Kessel Run
Media and Communications Engagement
Email: media@kr.af.mil

AFCENT’s 609th CAOC shifts to user-focused software suite

AOC adopts apps to increase operational command and control

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AL UDEID AIR BASE, QATAR – The Air Force’s combined air operations center responsible for operations in the Middle East is running on new software.

On Nov. 20, 2022, Airmen from Kessel Run, the Air Force’s system program office for the Air Operations Center Enterprise, replaced the 609th Combined Air Operations Center’s legacy Theater Battle Management Core System with its own suite of applications. Adopting the software, known as the Kessel Run All Domain Operations Suite, or KRADOS, marked the first time in history that air tasking and airspace control orders were operationally built and flown in that CAOC without TBMCS and the master air attack planning toolkit.

“KRADOS is yet another example of how the Air Force is leading from the front on making Joint All Domain Command and Control a reality, but more importantly, it is an integral element in making our adversaries’ targeting problem more complex and making U.S. C2 capabilities more resilient to both kinetic and non-kinetic threats,” said Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) commander and the Combined Forces Air Component Commander for U.S. Central Command.

Kessel Run has maintained TBMCS since 2017, while simultaneously working with warfighters to develop a user-focused replacement. KRADOS gives Airmen a level of situational awareness that could not be achieved with TBMCS alone, while laying the groundwork for the continued development of future capabilities for the entire AOC enterprise.

“This is one of the most significant updates to an AOC’s capabilities in decades,” said Andrew Ross, Kessel Run KRADOS Product Lead. “What we learned here will enable more flexibility in Air Force operations, and build momentum as we look toward future software upgrades at other AOCs”

Warfighters at the 609 AOC said adopting the full KRADOS suite makes today’s work easier, but also lays the foundation for even more.

“KRADOS gives us an unparalleled level of flexibility, agility and survivability,” said Col. Kevin Ogle, 609 AOC commander. “We now own the capabilities, which sets the standard for every partner we’ll work with in the future. We’ve just scratched the surface, and I’m excited about the potential.”

Over the past few years while observing KRADOS being tested, stakeholders at the AOC like Ogle, Air Combat Command, and the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center provided critical feedback to Kessel Run. Airmen in the unit, which is a division under the Air Force Lifecycle Management Center, are thrilled to see their work pay off with this software implementation. The applications now operational today are significantly enhanced by the way they work together, with better training, and a user-focused approach to software development. Their unique capabilities optimize tanker mission planning, enable airspace planning and management, develop ATOs, and give commanders greater insight into friendly orders of battle.

“Are we done? Not even close,” said Col. Rich Lopez, Kessel Run’s senior materiel leader. “Our next major focus will be in the Pacific, where we plan to take all we’ve learned at the 609th and apply it to building robust warfighting capabilities for Airmen at the 613th in Hawaii and the greater enterprise. We know this region is different, and the pace of operations is unique. Our true mettle will be shown as we embrace this new challenge and deliver the best capabilities to the warfighters.”

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Digital Directorate
HBB, Kessel Run
Media and Communications Engagement
Email: media@kr.af.mil