HNI Lantern

Welcome to the HNI Lantern page. Located at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, The Lantern is the installation’s Collaboration and Innovation Center. It serves as a keynode for future joint warfighting experiments and has the capacity to provide a Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and Cyber collaborative environment to support Research and Development (R&D), Developmental Test (DT)/Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) preparation, technical baseline establishment exercises, modeling and simulation, experimentation, acquisition program/project development and direct warfighter support to program offices. The facility has been providing programs access to the tools and data required at multiple classification levels since 1993.

Mission: to coordinate and partner with local, regional and national leaders within state and federal governments, Air and Army National Guard Units, Reserve Units, laboratories, FFRDCs, industry, academia, non-traditional capabilities, and those involved with STEM efforts to create a physical and business environment to enhance and extend leading-edge advances in all areas of defense applications, cyber defense techniques with multi-use purposes, and public safety.to coordinate and partner with local, regional and national leaders within state and federal governments, Air and Army National Guard Units, Reserve Units, laboratories, FFRDCs, industry, academia, non-traditional capabilities, and those involved with STEM efforts to create a physical and business environment to enhance and extend leading-edge advances in all areas of defense applications, cyber defense techniques with multi-use purposes, and public safety.

Executes mission under three core areas:

  • Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) facility: Lab as a Service (LaaS)
  • Collaboration and Innovation
  • Office of Research and Technology Application (ORTA)

   

 

Board of Directors

The HNI Lantern is Hanscom AFB's Collaboration and Innovation Center organized under PEO Cyber & Networks and governed by a Board of Directors:

 

  • PEO Cyber & Networks - Chair
  • PEO Electronic Systems - Vice Chair
  • PAE Command, Control, Communications & Battle Management
  • PAE Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications
  • 66th Air Base Group Commander
  • Associate Director of Engineering and Technical Management 

 

                                

Connect with the team

Christopher Lind, Executive Director
 
Christopher Carrero, Technical Director
 
Eric Brimhall, Program Manager
 
Ted Johnson Business Operations Manager
 
For additional information or to become a Lantern mission partner, please contact us at: lantern@us.af.mil

Tech Focus Areas

The HNI Lantern is looking to connect with potential partners in the following areas:

 

  • Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
  • Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Big Data Analytics
  • Counter Small Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Cyber Resiliency/Security
  • DevSecOps
  • Digital Engineering
  • Digital Twins
  • Edge Computing
  • Sensors
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles 
  • Software Defined Networking
  • Mesh Networking
  • Multi-function Apertures
  • Open Architecture Radios
  • Machine-to-Machine Processing

 

Outreach and Events

2026 Lantern Innovation Symposium:
2026 Light the Lantern
  • Fall 2026, TBA
Lantern Awards Program
  • Bi-annually, TBA
Annual Lantern Board of Directors Meeting
  • 2026, TBA
Educational Partnerships Agreements
  • Ongoing
Department of the Air Force Tech, Transfer, and Transition (T3) Summit
  • TBA
Office of Research and Technical Application (ORTA) Training and Education Program
  • Ongoing

Innovation & Partnership News

  • Airman develops innovative training platform to enhance readiness

    When Staff Sgt. Chad Stricker developed an idea to improve patient care training, it was not to compete in an Air Force innovation contest.Instead, the 66th Medical Squadron noncommissioned officer in charge of education and training was focused on improving the way Tactical Combat Casualty Care

  • Innovation symposium focused on delivering capabilities faster

    Defense and technology experts gathered at the University of Massachusetts Lowell Applied Research Corporation’s Northstar Campus, June 2, to connect Hanscom Air Force Base acquisition professionals and industry partners with critical tools and resources.

  • Innovation symposium planned to connect defense ecosystem partners

    The Lantern: Hanscom Collaboration and Innovation Center will host an innovation symposium June 2 at the University of Massachusetts Lowell Applied Research Corporation’s, Northstar Campus in Lincoln, Massachusetts.This year’s theme is “Accelerating the Warfighting Advantage: Speed, Scale and

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