WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – In an effort to provide junior military engineers with hands on experience solving engineering challenges impacting the Department of Defense and the Air Force, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center recently created a pilot program called the Junior Engineer Development Initiative or JEDI.
The idea for the initiative came from Maj. Richard Hanberg, an aerospace engineer in the F-22 Program Office, who was inspired after touring the Rapid Development Integration Facility (RDIF) on base.
The RDIF, which is part of the Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Special Operations Force Directorate, is a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing and modification facility which started as an organization that quickly modified aircraft and weapon systems to meet special operator needs and timelines.
It has evolved to where it quickly designs, and manufactures mechanical and electrical solutions to include modifications for military aircraft and weapons systems around the world.
The facility provides multiple services and deliverables such as adaptive engineering prototyping, alternative design and analysis solutions and Joint and Urgent Operational Needs/Requirements support. These services often save customers millions of dollars in the process.
“I was very impressed with the shop [RDIF], and what they do, so I recommended we work with AFLCMC Engineering Directorate and pitch a development program that would offer an opportunity to bring in junior engineers, providing them with experience not only designing solutions to problems, but fabricating parts and installing them on aircraft,” Hanberg said.
He went on to add that the experience touching aircraft, doing modifications, and designs would be very beneficial to acquisition engineers and would help them when they went back to their program offices.
Alan Brookshire, technical director of RDIF, echoed Hanberg.
“We do real design work, manufacture, build, assemble and deliver and these are skills that over the years, acquisition engineers tend to lose,” Brookshire said. “This program will help them keep their skills and give them an appreciation for what it takes to build things, so that later on in their careers when they get proposals from prime contractors, they will be able to analyze the proposals better.”
An engineer from AFLCMC has been selected to start the six month program in June. It will be a temporary duty assignment.
For additional information about JEDI contact Alan Brookshire at DSN 787-4246 or alan.brookshire.1@us.af.mil.
