MAXWELL AFB–GUNTER ANNEX, Ala. – Business Enterprise Systems and Product Innovation (BESPIN) hosted the inaugural exercise, AGILE SABER, which united Department of Defense software teams, international partners, and industry experts for a weeklong initiative, April 7-11, in Montgomery, Alabama, to drive collaboration in software development, innovation, and national security.
AGILE SABER consisted of a rapid software development exercise, a leadership training course, and an opportunity to connect with local college students interested in tech-related career fields.
AGILE SABER helped BESPIN understand its true capacity for creating effective and secure software solutions at a moment’s notice. Over the course of the week, 10 teams of Airmen worked intensively to design and develop software solutions for a simulated full-scale noncombatant evacuation operation in the U.S. Indo-Pacific region. The teams were tasked with creating a solution that addressed one of three identified software needs: a Personnel Accountability and Aircraft Manifest System (PAAMS), a Secure Interoperable Messaging System (SIMS) and a Crowdsourced Tsunami Tracking System (CTTS).
The week culminated in a presentation of deliverables and product demonstrations that resulted in an overall win and subcategory winners:
Best-in-Show Application and Best Secure Interoperable Messaging System (SIMS): CoastComm
A concept client write up that features a multi-platform messaging system with end-to-end encryption connected to a server operating within a docker container, and hosted in an EC2 instance. Key features include Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption, code obfuscation, and Login.gov/Google authentication through BESPIN vendor partner ROWND. Alongside the client, a matrix server that contained on an AWS EC2 instance hosts a number of different messaging protocols was set up, allowing bridging between popular commercial messaging apps such as SMS, WhatsApp, and Signal.
Best Personnel Accountability and Aircraft Manifest System (PAAMS): HighGround
HighGround provides an administrative portal, extensible backend, and user registration flow for registering as an aircraft passenger and providing that passenger a boarding pass. HighGround’s simplicity combined with its focus on performance means it can handle high loads of data being constantly mutated while making sure that the resources users need to access HighGround are very low. This means passengers and administrators can reliably use HighGround in very low bandwidth environments and still be able to process, monitor, and mutate large pieces of data with little slowdown.
Best Crowdsourced Tsunami Tracking System (CTTS): EvacuRAiD
A web application designed to support real-time decision-making across the entire tsunami response life cycle—detection, alerts, evacuation, rescue coordination, and post-event data preservation. Its mission is to provide a digital backbone for tsunami response operations—empowering responders, maritime partners, and local authorities to act with speed, clarity, and coordination. EvacuRAiD emphasizes resilience in low-connectivity maritime environments, and the integration of diverse data sources.
Best In Culture Code: SMSlish
The team created a chat application with a focus on international utilization by embedding not just an auto translation feature but also the ability for users to correct the automatic translations to reduce incidents of miscommunication. Otherwise, it sorts users by various profiles such as Military, First Responder, Shipping Vessel, etc., to categorize communications to go to their most needed users.
BESPIN is a software solution center chartered to build the U.S. Air Force Mobile Center of Excellence and scale cloud and mobile application development across the Air Force and Department of Defense.
BESPIN looks forward to making next year’s AGILE SABER bigger and better.
