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PDEP Blue Ribbon Review for AFGSC data-driven decisions

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Gerald Peden
  • Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs

Air Force Global Strike Command teamed up with external partners to evaluate Portfolio-level Digital Engineering Platform (PDEP), the command’s high-tech analytical process in development during the Blue Ribbon Panel Sept. 14-15.

The two-day panel took place at the Cyber Innovation Center in Bossier City, Louisiana, and Barksdale Air Force Base, where board members reviewed the analytic framework of PDEP and discussed a variety of PDEP development goals. Lt. Col. Ryan Chmielewski, Chief of the PDEP Program Office at AFGSC’s Innovation, Analysis, and Leadership Development Directorate, also known as A9, said the panel additionally served to validate current PDEP plans and was a great opportunity to build relationships amongst external partners participating in the panel.

“The goal of the review panel was to receive an assessment from external partners to ensure we’re achieving our objectives and heading down the right path toward operationalizing data solutions,” Chmielewski said.

External panel members included the Air Force chief data officer, the IBM chief innovation officer, and the Air Force Research Laboratory senior scientist for command and control, decision support. The panel reviewed PDEP development and evaluated current program analytics as well as PDEP prototypes.

Dr. Donna Senft, AFGSC’s Chief Scientist sponsored the event and attended both days of the panel. Senft said the main goal in organizing the panel review was for external experts to validate the PDEP approach.

“The panel members concluded that we’re on the right track,” Senft said. “The Air Force chief data officer pointed us to Air Force resources that we can use in development, and we received valuable recommendations from the other participants on program growth.”

The panel members gathered information from various organizations supporting PDEP and presented the panel’s evaluation to Gen. Tim Ray, AFGSC commander. Senft said the overall take-aways were that PDEP is on track to meet the commander’s intent and PDEP is in lock-step with the Department of Defense data strategy.

“PDEP will implement Gen. Ray’s vision for having a state-of-the-art tool to provide data-based decision support,” Senft said. “We want to make sure that this tool will provide the data analytics and data visualization that will allow the command to make more rapid and better-informed decisions.”

Following the completion of PDEP, the platform is expected to be used by various AFGSC units. PDEP is pushing the command further toward the goal of advancing innovation and collaboration to support the nation’s strike force and capability.