A video game could be an important part of future space training in the U.S. military.
MGMWERX, an Air Force innovation hub located in Montgomery, has issued a military mobile app challenge. This goal is to come up with a mobile game designed to teach important concepts to prepare for future space challenges. The challenge is a part of the Air Force’s Blue Horizons initiative.
The best ideas collected from the challenge will be put together at a design session in January.
MGMWERX, which opened in Montgomery back in August of 2018, operates out of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce building and is a partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The challenge that the tech innovation center launched in December, is a platform to further strengthen the U.S. Air Force (USAF). It invites game developers, programmers, engineers, students and even weekend hobbyists to brainstorm and develop a military mobile app to teach certain concepts, such as orbital mechanics and space-lift.
The best of the ideas that are collected from the challenge will reportedly be put together at a design session in January, inside MGMWERX.
The MGMWERX challenge comes as President Donald Trump moves to create a new branch of the United States military, the United States Space Force.
The hope is that the military mobile app will be a valuable training resource for airmen and lieutenants.
Major Patrick Gaynor, a Blue Horizons fellow and former director of the Air Force’s 1st Space Operations Squadron, said that the Air Force is attempting to find better ways to prepare their airmen and lieutenants for the threatening capabilities that are being put into orbit by potential adversaries. Part of the preparation is to provide them with the capability of potentially counteracting these threats and to protect and defend the USAF’s capabilities in space.
“Hopefully, when we get this mobile application developed, we’ll be able to put it in the hands of airmen and lieutenants,” Gaynor said, reported the Montgomery Advertiser. “It won’t have real capabilities, so that they can take it home and hopefully start building social aspects, conversations around space operations,” he added.
The challenge is open until January 4, 2019. Unlike other federal-related projects, this particular challenge does not come with a specific set of rigid guidelines. The reason is that they are inviting “some fresh ideas,” according to MGMWERX Director Steve Werner.
After the event in January, MGMWERX expects to have a hybrid design composed of different ideas that best suit the military’s needs. From there, they will find a company to build the military
mobile app. This company could be one of the challenge participants or another company not involved in the challenge.
