Business and Enterprise Systems Product Innovation (BESPIN) and the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) Agile Innovation Digital (RAiD) have reunited in Montgomery, forming the Sentinel team, for the second iteration of their successful international exchange program.
During RAiD’s 6-week stay, the team will work together to co-develop Sentinel, a reporting tool that enables ground troops to securely send data from the field back to a communications center.
“We are extremely excited to have our teams back together again,” said Lt. Col. Tyler Hough, BESPIN’s Chief Operating Officer. “We’re creating a legacy of innovation and cooperation that not only enhances our technological capabilities, but also strengthens our international alliance.”
Sentinel will harness the power of mobile phones to give warfighters the ability to quickly provide timely and actionable insights to key decision-makers, enabling them to make fast and informed decisions.
“This partnership, beyond this second software co-development stint between the two Air Forces, also acts as a bridge to connect the digital ecosystems in the U.S. and Singapore,” said RAiD Program Lead MAJ Yeechien “Rock” Cheot. “We are honored to be here again to co-develop, learn and grow with BESPIN. We’ve moved past the formalities and it feels like family now.”
Cheot said he’s looking forward to expanding his skill sets by learning more about BESPIN’s continuous authority to operate (cATO) and delivery/deployment operations. He believes that seeing security as an enabler, and at an early phase, is key to develop software and deploy with speed.
“We would like to see if there are ways RAiD can move faster with deploying products, especially understanding BESPIN’s strength in its software delivery pipeline,” Cheot said.
Senior Airman Jacques Kohn, Sentinel delivery manager and designer, said he’s looking forward to diving into the process and discovering ways they can help each other problem-solve.
“The U.S. is more apprehensive about mobile security, whereas Singapore is already using mobile devices in the field,” Kohn said. “There are some lessons we can learn during this process to help us move along in our digitization journey.”
But building Sentinel isn’t the only thing the team will do.
“There are a lot of people interested in getting to know them and learning about their work, so we do have some time set aside to connect with others in the tech ecosystem,” Kohn said. “This partnership is really helping to connect us all.”
The team will end their journey in mid-July with a visit to the Pentagon to brief Sentinel and to share how BESPIN and RAiD’s partnership serves as a platform for the larger tech ecosystem to collaborate.
The Sentinel team is composed of MAJ Yeechien “Rock” Cheot, ME4 Edgar Liu, ME4 Gregory Foo, ME4 Shao Zhe Lam, SrA Jacques Kohn, Kayla Luther, Lisa Varden, SrA Steven Song, SrA Christopher Pham, Airman 1st Class Anthony Hoang, and SrA Jowyn Ordinario.
The foundation of this partnership was laid in November 2022, when members of RAiD visited BESPIN’s Montgomery facility as part of their tour to seek out like-minded software factories to learn and grow. It was during that trip that BESPIN and RAiD realized they had very similar missions. This initial collaboration resulted in the first exchange program in the summer of 2023 when the Stargazer plugin, which addresses data spillage in open text fields, was developed.
Earlier this year in April, five BESPIN leaders visited Singapore to further deepen this partnership. Discussions focused on User-Centered Design, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), product management strategy, Agile Contracting Mechanisms, talent management, DevSecOps, future joint initiatives, data operations and challenges.
BESPIN is a software solution center chartered to build the U.S. Air Force Mobile Center of Excellence and scale cloud and mobile application development across the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense.
For more information, visit https://teambespin.us/.
