Pentagon to Host BRAVO 11 Hackathon in Hawaii

The Department of Defense will host a hacking event in Hawaii from Feb. 5 to 9, 2024, open to all U.S. citizens.

The BRAVO 11 Bits2Effect event will be hosted by the DOD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, the Defense Innovation Unit, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the U.S. Army Pacific Command and the U.S. Air Force. The event seeks to produce solutions that can help INDOPACOM solve challenges involving operational theater data.

The hosts will use a permissive software development environment that allows protected and classified data to be combined with unauthorized open-source and commercial software. Participants must find a workaround to resolve issues associated with the main problem.

The event will be held at a DOD AI Battle Labs facility in Oahu, Hawaii, the Defense Department said.

The Bits2Effect hackathon was announced months after the BRAVO 10 event hosted by the Department of the Air Force from March 20 to 24. Stuart Wagner, chief digital transformation officer at the DAF and a past Potomac Officer’s Club speaker, said the event focused on new capabilities for the Air Force and the U.S. Space Force.