RSO branch searches for next bright idea

  • Published
  • By Daryl Mayer, AFLCMC Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (AFLCMC) – The adage, generally credited to Ralph Waldo Emerson, says if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. 
 
But what if no one knows you did it?   
 
With Lt. Gen. Shaun Morris, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center commander, as Program Executive Officer, the Rapid Sustainment Office is leading the effort to find, evaluate and scale innovative solutions across the sustainment enterprise. 
 
“The i2 [Innovation & Integration Branch] role was to go out and identify, assess and recommend candidate technologies that we think would make a difference to reducing costs and increasing mission readiness,” said George Sarmiento, i2 Branch Chief. 
 
The branch gets ‘problem statements’ used to develop requirements for potential solutions.  Initially, the problem statements came from headquarters organizations, but as projects were fielded the word got out. 
 
“There are many users from the field that have heard about the RSO and started reaching out to us, ‘Hey, we've got this issue, is there anything we can do?” he said. 
 
To find solutions, the branch partners with the Small Business Administration and uses the Small Business Innovation Research program.  They have also begun a relationship with the Defense Innovation Network to find innovative companies already vetted by venture capitalists. 
 
To hear the full conversation, you can watch Leadership Log on YouTube at https://youtu.be/jqtSzKPe9zc.  You can also listen by searching “Leadership Log” on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Overcast, Radio Public or Breaker.