Investing in Innovation in the Indo-Pacific

I'm Ashley Wang, lead associate in Booz Allen Hamilton's global defense sector, focusing on the Indo-Pacific. And this is Master of the Mission with Ed Barnabas. Ed is vice president and lead for Indo-Pacific e-business. It's an honor to have you here, Ed.

Thank you, Ashley. Thanks for having me.

I'd love to hear more about your role at Booz Allen and your area of expertise and how you're bringing that to the mission in the Indo-Pacific.

I've been with the firm now for over 10 years, but I have a 20-plus-year career all within federal consulting, and all of that time has been specifically working within IT, and that means invariably a lot of large-scale transformation. So I've worked with any number of programs having to deal with enterprise architecture, systems development, cyber, and data analytics. And the reason why I feel my experience and all the the years I've supported the government has been so I think critical in terms of how we're supporting our clients is that the mission is rapidly evolving. And when we think about our near-peer adversaries and the pacing threat, how we think about each mission area is really going to be how we adopt technology to make it better and more efficient, and how we're using data. And I feel that my cumulative experience within working with many different federal agencies has been an enabler, I think for the team and for the clients. In terms of how we think about technology.

That's great. Booz Ellen is investing heavily in these types of challenges and in readiness. And there's an exciting investment in the Honolulu innovation lab that is coming down the pipe. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

I would love to. So where we're sitting right now, we moved into about two years ago. And other than providing a space for our staff, which has been growing exponentially over the last couple years, there also was a very deliberate and concerted effort to think how we're bringing solutions to our clients. And one of those investments was to carve out a portion within the office and to really build out the concept of an innovation lab where we could incubate, we could think through, we could rapid-prototype different capabilities and technologies that maybe our clients didn't really have the funding to do or didn't have the means to. But because we're such valued partners and have been here for close to 30 years, we felt it was our obligation to see how we could help fast-track their adoption. And so beginning about two years ago, we started to build out our lab, which is a cloud environment for our technologists to collaborate and to work on anything from large data sets through our GPU to working with different peripherals about how you make that come to life. And what we're really excited about is a new reinvestment in the lab that we're doing, which is bringing a lot of great capabilities out to the region. A lot of those center on the concept we call accelerated readiness. And some of those things that are going to be live within our lab very soon is digital twin for modeling and mission planning. We're thinking of looking at wearables and looking at a AR/VR for mission rehearsal. Also looking at how we're doing rapid prototyping in general, right? And how we can fast-track the process of how you take idea into production or deployment out to the warfighter. And also another one is around 5G and how we're looking at telemedicine. So all of these different capabilities and technologies are going to come to life within the lab and we're going to make them not just a place where you can see the technology, but you can experience it. And so we're really excited to bring our clients to the space and also really excited for our own team, right, to see how Booz Allen at large is looking at technology and how we can bring that to the region.

 
And that's really exciting because both our staff and our clients can not just read about it on paper or PowerPoint, but they can actually come and experience it and be immersed in it.

I think that's the most important thing. I think technology as much it is about zeros and ones and it can feel like almost abstract because it's so technical and so forward leaning. It still has to be something that's felt. And I think one thing that we want to do in the lab is to have that experience be something that you can see yourself in. And we want to create that environment for our clients because only then will anybody feel more comfortable to adopt it within their mission space.

 
Well, that's exciting and I'm looking forward to seeing the new innovation lab.

Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it for joining us, Ed.

I'm Joanna Guy, lead associate in Booz Allen's global defense sector. And this is Master the Mission with Rex Jordan. Rex is Booz Allen's senior vice president and global enterprise lead of business in the Indo-Pacific. Formerly Rex served for 20 years in the Air Force where he was a crew member of Air Force One. Chief navigator and chief of presidential flight support. Thanks for joining me, Rex.

Joanna, thanks for having me.

What was it like flying the president and being an aircrew member of Air Force One?

Well to say the least it was very thrilling. My time on Air Force One was with President Clinton for his last administration for his re-election campaign and the last four years of his administration plus a few months of George Bush. Very exciting, very thrilling. It was a high-visibility, no-fail obviously mission to be a part of, but it's also very thrilling to be a part of something that's so visible and so important to the nation.

What drew you to bolster national and global security specifically for the defense mission in the Indo-Pacific region?

The evolution of the adversary, and that evolution has been pretty obvious over the past decade, has really led us to a place where there are a few things that have become apparent. One of them is some of the advantages that we've had for decades now because of the geography, because of the expanses of the Pacific, because of the limitations on some of the technologies that have been out there have distinctly given us a projection advantage, a capability advantage, a technology advantage. So time has become the most critical component throughout the Pacific and the temporal elements that we had the advantage on and decades past simply don't exist anymore. The time to respond has just been compressed so much over the past decade that things like a digital twin where we can manipulate and understand and provide multiple courses of action or courses in general, it really does compress that time frame to make those decisions of what we can do. And the limitations on the infrastructure throughout the Pacific, I mean everybody understands vast expanses of ocean, limited number of ports and airfields and safe harbors around the area really, really drive home the need to be able to digitize and to be able to make those kinds of decisions in a much more dynamic fashion. That's really the advantage there.

The Indo-Pacific Digital Twin is just one of the technologies that you're investing in and developing right there in Honolulu at the Honolulu Booz Allen Innovation Lab. What are some of the other technologies that you're looking at?

So we're very focused on a couple of things. One of them is training, and at the very beginning of the whole life cycle of response is training. And the evolution of training is really very exciting as well. And you can call it accelerated readiness, but it's really including all the elements that we just talked about, things like AI, things like augmented reality, virtual reality, so that units and troops and leaders don't necessarily have to travel those great distances to get the training that they need. And we're investing in that heavily now. So if you come to the Honolulu office and we'd certainly like to host you, you can see where we are now. We have 3D printers. We have the AR/VR capability we're about to get what we're calling an X-ray sled where we're able to inject new curriculum into the training devices that that the warfighters are using to really try to compress some of that training time and inject more realism into it as well. So very exciting time in the Honolulu office.

You touched on X-ray and the extended reality and analytics engine. This is a tool to receive real-time analytics as you're training on things like eye tracking if you're a pilot in a cockpit. You mentioned the X-ray sled that's coming in. Why are real-time analytics, perhaps bolstered by a tool like generative AI, so important for training in the Indo-Pacific?

Well, a couple of things. One and I still come back to the, what we talked about just a moment ago, the temporal aspects of this. The time that we have had the luxury of investing in the past and large-scale training simply doesn't exist any longer. The fact that we need to push pilots through all types of different circumstances. In the past we were limited by aircraft availability, or airfield availability, or a number of different environmental circumstances. It just kept, and this goes for sea training as well as air training by the way, or any other type of training. The limitations on those environments have given us structures that we simply can't live with it anymore. And the ability to analyze the training environment, to analyze the individual allows us to customize those scenarios, those responses, all the kind of things that go into really enhancing our ability to respond at an individual, at a collective level, and really at a national level to a large degree now.

And your role now is really focused on advancing joint, as you said, and multidomain operations.

So as complex as the world is, and as complex as the Indo-Pacific is, the multidomain operations is a critical component to that, not just the multidomain piece but the multinational piece as well. Just because of the fact that the geography is so expansive, the complexity of the operating within the region is so, so difficult. And in the advancement of our adversary puts us in a place where all of those things just have to come together in a unified way.

And a large part of that is collaboration and interoperability especially with our allies and coalition partners. How do you see Booz Allen driving forward the mission of a mission partner environment?

So all of those things come into play because again, just to repeat, it's absolutely critical that we'll be able to operate with our allies, with our partners, with all the folks that bring capabilities that just enhance the things that we bring. The most critical piece of operating in the Pacific now, it's really become time. In the past, our real strength has been power projection and the fact that we were able to sense and decide in a very short period of time. Well, that short period of time has become much shorter now, with the advancement of technology such as hypersonics, with the ability for space-based assets to generate so much data, with the ability of our adversary to be able to take advantage of some of the things that we in the past have been able to take advantage of like the great distances. All those things are now coming into play. So time has become a critical factor and being able to operate with our allies and partners only enhances our ability to make those decisions, to be able to sense the things that we need to be able to sense across the broad expanses of the Pacific, to be able to recognize the things that really are threats, to be able to decide what really is a threat and to act against that. And those time frames, which in the past have been primarily framed around 30-minute windows, you know, 30 minutes to sense, 30 minutes to decide, 30 minutes to really react, are now compressed into places where that's much shorter than that even with the long distances between locations. So all of those things are now coming into play and our ability to inject technology such as AI really are data science pieces of this to be able to understand how those all interoperate and can really connect to enhance those decision-making time frames are critical.

Thank you so much Rex.

All right. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Ashley Wang, lead associate in Booz Allen Hamilton's global defense sector focused on the Indo-Pacific region. And this is Master the Mission with Tammy Makizuhiga. Tammy is an Army business leader focused on the Indo-Pacific, and she joins us here today. Hello, Tammy.

Hi, Ashley. 

Can you tell me a little bit about your background and your role at Booz Allen and the passion that led you to focus on the Army and the Indo-Pacific?

Thank you, Ashley. I'm more than happy to share. So my background when I first started with Booz Allen, I come from a healthcare career and then an emergency management background at the state and federal level before I joined Booz Allen. And over the 15-plus years that I've been with Booz Allen, I've had the opportunity to really work across the commands. And now I'm the Army business leader. And so the passion that I have for the work, I think it really is tied to one living here in the region, born and raised here of course. So I feel that I can really contribute. This is my way of contributing to the safety and security of the region, you know and really contributing as much as I can to an open and free Indo-Pacific.

And can you share a little bit about, you know what some of the challenges are that your clients are facing in the Indo-Pacific region and how some of our technology solutions can help them address that?

Oh, that's a great question. I would say that in working with our different clients and organizations, what I've learned is because of the fast-paced and evolving theater, with all of the different threats within the theater, the challenge is really about how do they do, how do they succeed in their mission, how do they meet with their requirements and really keep up with that operational pace, right. And at the same time, there's definite areas where they can do process improvement, where they want to be able to focus their time and energies and making or being able to make the decisions that they need to do at the right time, at the right place. And so, what does that mean for technologies? And some of the things that we've been focused on in the last few years and then going forward, there's some interesting areas of technology and capabilities that we bring to bear from Booz Allen. So I would say, for example, for exercises and training, I've been able to work with the immersive reality team. They've been able to really apply their augmented reality to the training materials to make it a much more in-depth, real, and interesting training course. You know, as they go through the curriculum is one area for our process improvement side of the house. We've been able to apply artificial intelligence. And how we've been able to do that is really to focus on an area of concern that they wanted to deal with. Say, for instance, one of their main equipment that they use out in the field. They wanted to be able to track all of that information tied to the parts, the maintenance, and, you know, really have the readiness of the equipment. And so, through our support and our application of artificial intelligence, they were able to ingest thousands of pieces of information that, in the end, helped to build a program of information and records of the different supporting pieces of equipment for that craft. And in turn that led to readiness, right, because they have all of that available. So for the future, you know when you look at artificial intelligence and what it can do, it really helps to enhance the processes and speed up the decision making and exercises or plans actually is a really good area where it can apply because the artificial intelligence that's applied to that area can help them to test out their different plans, to test out their different scenarios as an example and say in a crisis situation, and then help to help them to work through the different courses of action.

Tell us a little bit more about the new investment that Booz Allen is making in the Honolulu Innovation Lab.

I personally, I am so excited that we will have that Honolulu Innovation Lab. It's a perfect way for us to bring in our clients and organizations to really sit down with us, have a discussion on you know the areas of need and challenges, and then we're able to show them how we can apply our different technologies and capabilities. And as an example, the digital twin is a wonderful tool and resource that can be utilized across the region in terms of being able to map out a scenario and really use that information to test out their plans, to test out their exercises, and look at the different courses of action over and over and the different ways that they want to utilize it. Nothing beats being able to see something visually in person and then to really experience it for yourself and how it can be applied.

And it can be really tailored because the footage that we're able to take to map out whatever the area or building or facility and then it replicates it into the digital twins. So that can really be specified to the particular client and the challenges they're facing, or the solution that they're looking for.

Exactly. Because of the collaboration that we do across the commands, we can continue to benefit. Each organization can benefit from what's being built in digital twin for the separate commands. And you know everything that's being utilized can be built and leveraged continued on, and continue to grow and evolve, right. And so that's the beauty of the technology and the capability.

And the iLab is great because they can come in, they can see things and feel them and experience them. Put on the headset, see for themselves how this technology can really impact their mission.

Yes. We want our clients and organizations to really feel that they can access this tool, and access the innovation lab together with our capabilities together with us to help them meet their future challenges.

Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us, Tammy.

Thank you, Ashley. Thanks for inviting me.

I'm Joanna Guy, lead associate in Booz Allen's global defense sector, and this is Master the Mission with Brandon Lester. Well, can you start by telling me a little bit more about your role with Booz Allen and the passion that drew you to support the Indo-Pacific region?

Absolutely. I've spent about the past six years in the Indo-Pacific working for various different companies, and Booz Allen's mission is really what resonated with me, spending time directly with clients focused on defense, intelligence, and at the right mix of bringing technology to the fight.

Booz Allen is currently making a large-scale investment in accelerated readiness for Honolulu's Innovation Lab. Can you tell me a little bit about how the technology implemented in that investment exemplifies the heart of mission and technology?

Yeah, the Honolulu Innovation Lab is really a place where we're trying to bring the best of Booz Allen into the theater. So an example of that is we have these digital twin capabilities that are deployed and developed throughout Booz Allen. We're building that for the Indo-Pacific. So we have the hardware, we have the know-how, we have the expertise to work directly with clients in an environment like Unity, and ultimately bring those tools to every client throughout the region.

And how do you think that this technology will have an impact specifically in the Indo-Pacific? How is that threat terrain different than conflicts we've seen in the past?

The challenges are moving faster. You have to be able to acknowledge a threat, identify what capabilities you need to be able to address that threat, and have a rapid turn on those solutions. Today's environment is only going to go faster and faster and faster. So while we've had success with technologies, the key now is to be able to continue and be able to fight tonight if we needed to.

Can you give me your perspective on the Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation capability or PMTECH? This is one of USINDOPACOM's top priorities, and I'd love to learn how Booz Allen is accelerating the mission of PMTECH.

PMTECH is a really interesting approach because what is coming together is the need to exercise and train as we have, but think differently about it. Consider it a mission rehearsal. Any given time. We need to be able to plan like we're going to bring a capability into the environment tomorrow, but it can't take a year to deliver that. So now we have the ability to introduce things like live, virtual, constructive capabilities. You can basically exercise when and where you want to, and how the commander thinks that we should be exercising and demonstrating capabilities. And then in addition to that, bringing other technologies, whether that's cloud or edge compute, 5G and really connect the ranges, the soldiers, whatever kind of information we need to better analyze what that training is capable of and then make adjustments.