Cutting-edge capabilities shown at Special Operations Forces Industry Conference

On May 15-18, 2017 several Team Orlando workforce members participated in the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) at the Tampa Convention Center. SOFIC is the premier venue for the SOF community to interact with industry and to collaborate on the challenges, initiatives and way-ahead in delivering the most cutting-edge capabilities into the hands of SOF operators.

Team Orlando members joined educational sessions, demonstrations, interacted with exhibitors and networked across the SOF community’s academic, industry and military members. During the opening keynote, Kelly Stratton-Feix, acting director of acquisition agility for USSOCOM, discussed their unique approaches to non-FAR contracting to increase the speed, decrease cost and leverage the depth, breadth and diversity of companies currently outside of the SOF community. Stratton-Feix discussed how small companies, outside of the SOF industrial base, can boost their velocity, multiply its iterations and increase the variety of capabilities to meet the changing demands of its operators.

For the Team Orlando community, SOFIC provides a multitude of significant opportunities for networking, as well as detailed insights and tips on how to collaborate with the U.S. Special Operations Command, and information on what science and technology capabilities are most desired by the community.

Dan Torgler, JTIEC deputy director, described Team Orlando’s increase of capabilities in cyber as a major collaboration area that exists between the SOF community and the modeling and simulation community in Central Florida.

“This is a great example of what a collaboration success looks like,” said Torgler. “The training focuses on total operation and team, not just cyber warriors. It shows how everyone has an important role to play in detecting and defeating cyber attacks.”

“We’re also really excited because one of our former Team Orlando cyber members is now assigned to SOCOM to assist in developing cyber operations, detection and training. This type of integrated training is one of the strengths of Team Orlando.”