SIF Marketplace, Forum: A new way to fund squadron innovation

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Scott Warner
  • 621st Contingency Response Wing
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  

The U.S. Air Force has launched the Squadron Innovation Fund (SIF) Marketplace, a new initiative aimed at revolutionizing how innovation is funded and fostered across the service.

“This new token-based system gives commanders more control and enables them to collaborate with other units to potentially pool resources together to support larger, more impactful projects,” Maj. Wes Williams, 621st Contingency Response Wing innovation officer said. 

The SIF Marketplace process and system provides squadron commanders with a virtual currency, called tokens, each worth $100 that can fund promising initiatives.

How are Squadron Innovation Fund tokens distributed?

Squadron Size

Tokens Allocated

Currency Equivalent (USD)

233, or less personnel

156

$15,600

234, or more personnel

234

$23,400
 

"The 'spend it or lose it' mentality has historically driven funds toward what’s easiest to obligate rather than what most effectively advances our mission, and increases our collective lethality," Williams stated. "Commanders are given funds, but rarely have the time to analyze ideas or awareness of other initiatives to spend the dollars where they believe it will have the greatest impact."  

To ensure these SIF tokens will have the largest effect, Williams capitalized on this new format by creating the first-ever SIF Forum, a proposed annual event to create collaboration amongst squadron commanders.

Squadron Innovation Fund (SIF) Marketplace Playbook

(U.S. Air Force photo by USAF Public Affairs)
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"The SIF Forum is designed to maximize squadron commander operational and creative insight while minimizing admin lift," Williams emphasized. "This process provides transparency, ensures alignment with financial and contracting requirements and prioritizes innovation that drives capability throughout the enterprise, not just in our individual silos."

On April 10, in partnership with Phoenix Spark’s Innovation Lab at Travis Air Force Base, California, the first-ever Squadron Innovation Fund Forum was held. This enabled as many as 20 squadron commanders, not including other unit's innovation lead representatives, to attend in-person and virtually from around the country to discuss new and exciting squadron projects.

Squadron leaders from the 305th Air Mobility Wing, 437th Airlift Wing, 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing, 521st AMOW, 60th AMW, 628th Air Base Wing, 36th Contingency Response Group, 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group and 621st CRW were invited to the event. 

From the SIF Token Forum event, one large project that created a lot buzz in the room was called Project VEIL. 

"Project Variant EdgeAI Infrastructure Layer (VEIL) plans to equip frontline leaders with easy-to-use, customizable Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools designed to solve real problems at the squadron level," Williams emphasized. "This will put AI expertise directly alongside the operator, helping teams make faster decisions, improve training and keep data secure, even in disconnected environments. Project VEIL ensures missions are supported with smarter tools built around how squadrons actually work, and by pooling SIF funding, will provide the resources needed to build out this capability now, while long-term Air Force-wide solutions are still in development."

Furthermore, Williams explained how the forum also met a higher-level objective, which was to build an optional framework that Air Mobility Command and U.S. Expeditionary Center could use to organize its commanders to efficiently employ their SIF Tokens with a possibility of being the model the Department of the Air Force uses in the future as well.  Whether the Forum continues and expands will be determined by the value it provides to squadron commanders and senior leadership. 

“The Basic All American Delivery system project was perfect for the SIF Forum because normally the scope of a project such as this would be limited to the operating environment and command teams immediately involved in Pope Army Airfield’s joint mission,” Senior Master Sgt. Andrew Silkworth, 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group senior enlisted said. “This forum allowed us to not only feature this project to leaders within the Global Air Mobility Support System, but allowed us show our leaders that while the initial impact would offer Pope AAF an opportunity to solve a multi-decade old aerial delivery problem set.”

According to Silkworth, the BAADS project success could impact mobility efforts by the entire USAF, providing a means to commercially procure a fully developed system that could significantly impact contested environment efficiency leading to significantly increased aircraft time on target metrics. While commanders might not have direct ties or functional correlation to this project, they could contribute to its success using their SIF tokens if they desire to do so.

Man briefs room

U.S. Air Force Maj. Wes Williams, 621st Contingency Response Wing innovation officer, briefs a room full of squadron commanders and unit innovation lead representatives during the first-ever Squadron Innovation Fun Forum at Phoenix Spark's Innovation Lab on Travis Air Force Base, California, April 10, 2025. The SIF Forum was a one-day event that brought together more than 20 unit commanders and representatives to collaborate with other units to potentially pool resources together to support larger, more impactful projects with their SIF tokens. Each SIF token was worth $100. (U.S. Air Force photo by Kenneth Abbate)
Photo Details / Download Hi-Res
 

“Overall, I think the event went well, and we learned quite a bit about how this process can work," Williams said. "We saw meaningful collaboration between commanders and also saw funding move between organizations rather than remaining siloed. It allowed us to break the time and space walls that force us to work alone so that we can get after big wins together."

For future iterations, Williams wanted to see the forum event expand to include virtual and asynchronous options, potentially spread over several days and to enable participation from commanders across the enterprise.

"I think we can also do a better job of advocating directly to wing and group commanders to ensure squadron commanders have time set aside to analyze projects and allocate their tokens," Williams suggested. 

”The SIF Forum is designed to maximize squadron commander operational and creative insight while minimizing admin lift. This process provides transparency, ensures alignment with financial and contracting requirements and prioritizes innovation that drives capability throughout the enterprise, not just in our individual silos.''
Maj. Wes Williams, 621st CRW innovation officer
To participate in the SIF Marketplace, whether as an innovator submitting ideas or as a commander allocating resources, Department of the Air Force members must create an account on the VISION Joint Innovation System platform.

Submissions are open year-round, with quarterly funding windows that provide continuous opportunities to receive support.

To learn more about the history of SIF and how this all works, please read the USAF Chief of Staff Strategic Studies Group SIF Marketplace Playbook.