Army chooses mobile app concept through new soldier-led innovation challenge

The Army today announced it has wrapped up a new soldier-led effort to improve elements of the service within the XVIII Airborne Corps, called the Dragon Innovation Challenge.

The Dragon Innovation Challenge began in June, followed by a voting process in September where five top innovations out of 87 concepts that addressed training and range issues were chosen. Soldiers then presented their concepts to a panel of experts, which included Paul Puckett, director of the Army’s Enterprise Cloud Management Office.

Maj. Evan Adams from the XVIII Airborne Corps' 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, KY, won the challenge with his concept for the RangeFinder app, a "mobile application for scheduling, managing and forecasting ranges and land across the Army," an Army press release states.

His concept will be applied across the XVIII Airborne Corps, according to the release.

"Adams' concept is a game-changer in terms of organizing, planning, resourcing, and scheduling training," said Col. Joe Buccino, spokesman for the XVIII Airborne Corps. "Within the coming weeks, the XVIII Airborne Corps will develop a pathway to aggressive implementation of the RangeFinder app."