“ We like to say we are the digital backbone of the Royal Air Force ,” he says , “ because we deliver the information services needed , suitably protected . to allow air platforms to conduct their mission .”
Brad Buck is the programme lead for digital optimisation , which is the Royal Air Force ’ s digital transformation program and also the head of RAF Digital Services , which develops and delivers software and data products .
“ RAFX is delivering experimentation , so we facilitate their ability to exploit technology ,” says Buck . “ We support them with the technology roadmap , making sure that they have a path to production .”
When it comes to working with 90SU , Buck and his team are responsible for tasking AX ( application exploitation ) flight – prioritising digital services and activities for their developers to work on , while also defining reference architecture and digital patterns which they can exploit and use moving forwards .
Buck believes the COVID-19 pandemic presented a significant opportunity in the way the Air Force wanted to be able to exploit its data and make sure its workforce was prepared for working from home – made possible by the digital backbone and cloud capabilities .
Buck says the RAFs digital transformation is built on civilians , contractors and a whole force spectrum of skill sets .
“ We tried to capitalise on industry engagement when it comes to keeping up with the pace of technology . We then try to make sure that ’ s sustainable by using the civilian resource as a backbone to that skill set , and then making sure that those skills can transfer to the military . Although we might be delivering some HR apps today , in the future those need to be deployable and able to solve real Air Force problems on operation .”
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