How a grassroots Air Force team built the future of AI

Published May 22, 2025
By Staff Sgt. Ethan Sherwood
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --

No tasker. No contract. No budget. Just a team of Airmen, some laptops and the belief that artificial intelligence could change everything.

Two years later, that belief became RAPID, Revolutionary AI Production, Innovation and Deployment, a self-contained, offline-capable AI framework already influencing operations across the Air Force.

“No one told us to do this,” said Capt. Jim Horn, Air Mobility Command operations research analyst modeling and simulation division. “We saw where AI was going, and we knew we couldn’t wait for the bureaucracy to catch up.”

The Air Mobility Command Rapid Innovation Team poses for a photo with ESRA, one of their early projects and a precursor to Revolutionary AI Production, Innovation and Deployment. ESRA was the first artificial intelligence at the secret level and won the team their first Air Force level award. (Courtesy photo)

RAPID is designed to operate in disconnected environments where traditional cloud-based AI tools fall short. It runs on a standalone machine, with no internet required, making it an ideal tool for aircraft in flight and in contested environments.

This technology has already proven itself during field operations. While entirely disconnected from the internet, it was able to provide tactical intelligence analysis on the area of operations. Instead of having to bring the data to AI they brought the AI to the data. The AI was able to pull information from “dark” storage like word documents and local files.

“I took RAPID with me for exercise Bamboo Eagle 25-1,” said 1st Lt. Kaleb Neal, AMC operations analysis officer. “I was able to use this AI to analyze information coming in from different channels to provide concise reports for the decision makers.”

The model is trained on military jargon and operations data, making RAPID far more accurate than generic AI. “If someone says “POL,” it understands we’re talking about fuel,” added Horn.

Most impressively, RAPID wasn’t built in a tech lab or under a formal program. It was a nights and weekends effort by a group of officers and enlisted Airmen across the Air Force, from data scientists to maintainers.

They received no funding for their project. They stayed long hours after work and came in on the weekends. It was their own garage startup.

U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Kaleb Neal, Air Mobility Command operations analysis officer, presents his Air and Space Recognition Ribbon with two oak leaf clusters. The Air Mobility Command Rapid Innovation Team noted that the ribbon validates that their work on artificial intelligence matters and has meaningful impact on Airmen’s lives. (Courtesy photo)

By 2023, the team deployed their first in-house model using open-source coding and their own custom interface and infrastructure. That tool evolved into multiple applications and is accessible by anyone in the Department of Defense with a common access card.

Despite RAPID's impressive performance, the team realized they needed to focus on trust. They developed a validation framework that flags discrepancies between model outputs and human expectations. This tool helps users know when the AI or the analyst might be off.

RAPID’s success has not gone unnoticed. The team has presented their work at hackathons, briefed senior leaders, collaborated with the MIT-Air Force partnership Phantom Program and even caught the attention of a commercial tech giant.

“Engineers from Google told us we were ahead of some of their enterprise clients in applied AI,” said Lt. Col. Justin Ross, AMC analytic support division chief.

In 2024, the team won its second Air Force-Level Innovation award in a row. “Most people go their entire career without that kind of recognition,” said Lt. Col Loc Nguyen, AMC advanced analytic division chief. “These Airmen earned it two years in a row, without funding or full-time billets.”

The team has since been invited to support Army units, partner with international allies, and brief Department of Defense leadership on deploying agile AI at scale.

While RAPID’s original builders are beginning to leave for new assignments and deployments, they’re focused on ensuring the framework and its culture continue to grow.

“We don’t need a permanent AI team. We need every Airman to have access to AI, just like they have Excel.”

The Air Mobility Command Rapid Innovation Team poses for a photo with a cutout of Lt. Col. Loc Nguyen, Air Mobility Command advanced analytic division chief, and the “squallet,” a taxidermy squirrel turned into a wallet, an unofficial mascot of the team,. What started as a joke became a symbol of the group's can-do spirit. It accompanies them to presentations as an icebreaker and a reminder that innovation should be fun. (Courtesy photo)

The team's legacy lies in the fact that they proved what is possible. Driven by the will to better the force and create exciting tools on a couple of laptops.

NOTE: The RAPID team offers monthly demos of their tools and is actively collaborating across the Department of Defense. Interested personnel can connect through official Air Force channels.

Congratulations to the team for earning this prestigious award:

Lt. Col. Justin "Cross" Ross, AMC/A9

Lt. Col. Loc "Tone" Nguyen, AMC/A9

Maj. Marc Chalé, SAF/SA

Maj. Alexander Kramer, AMC/CDAO

Capt. Stephen Lee, AMC/A9

Capt. James Horn, AMC/A9

Mr. David Cutter, AMC/A9

Capt. Brian Spears, AMC/A9

1st Lt. Kaleb Neal, AMC/A9

2nd Lt. Alexander Knowles, AMC/A9

2nd Lt. Mitchell Woelfle, AMC/A9

2nd Lt. Hannah Garwood, AMC/A9

And a thank you from the team for the help along the way:

Maj. Raymond Hill, PACAF A9

Capt. Hanna Born, 23rd FTS

Capt. Andrew Taurianen, 732nd OSS

1st Lt. Eve Schoenrock, AFIT

2nd Lt. Cameron Cubra, USAFE A9

Staff Sgt. Daniel Van Buren, NATO AWACS/OPS

Senior Airman Frankarlo Monterrosa, 693rd ISS

Mr. Matthew “Wally” Atkins, U.S. Army TRADOC

Cadet 1st Class Daniel Hayase, USAFA

Cadet 1st Class Jonathan Loh, USAFA

Cadet 1st Class Cassidy Cubra, USAFA

Cadet 1st Class Wesley Hughes, USAFA

Mr. Vincent Berry, Pryon