LANSING, Mich. - Founded in September 2020, the Kelly Johnson Joint All-Domain Innovation Center, or KJJADIC, made former Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr.’s directive to ‘Accelerate Change’ one of its key tenets.
After four years of leveraging academia and industry to develop and test solutions to Department of Defense pacing challenges, the KJJADIC is embracing current Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin’s initiative to ‘Follow Through.’
“Our mission is to democratize creativity and innovation,” said U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Eric Burgess, KJJADIC executive officer. “This means developing creative members of the Air Force to build cohesive, diverse teams that out-think, out-innovate and out-compete any adversary in the world.”
Throughout its history, the KJJADIC has collaborated with Exercise Northern Strike to integrate new technologies alongside the joint warfighter at the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in Northern Michigan. Northern Strike is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored, multi-component, multinational exercise designed to build readiness and enhance interoperability with allied forces to fight and win.
“Since the KJJADIC’s inception, Northern Strike has been a critical tool in pushing our innovation efforts forward,” said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Powell Crider, KJJADIC senior enlisted advisor. “We are able to link up our academia and industry partners with visiting units to create a collaborative, innovative ecosystem. Our goal, in the end, is to operationalize innovation.”
Most recently, the center tested 10 lines of effort aligned with Department of Defense and Air Force strategic, operational and tactical objectives at Northern Strike 24-2. According to Burgess, these included non-radio frequency communication systems, additive manufacturing, maritime personnel recovery, numerous unmanned aerial systems, synthetic aperture radar analysis and various cyber and command and control technologies.
“There’s nothing quite like boots on the ground, and that also applies to being physically present when a new technology is being pushed into new territories,” Burgess said. “Northern Strike allows the KJJADIC the opportunity to put something tangible in their hand, whether that be a ketamine pump for battlefield pain management, or the controller for a 3D printed drone and allowing them to pilot it.”
This year’s exercise iteration saw participation from about 6,300 personnel comprising the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Special Operations Forces and Coast Guard personnel from 31 states, one commonwealth, 11 service components, and five countries.
“The joint audience at the exercise allows service members from all branches and components, with diverse mission and skill sets, a chance to get their hands on new technologies,” Crider said. “Their feedback allows all parties involved a chance to improve their systems and processes that lead to a better developed operational capability for the warfighter.”