Building better solutions: Dragon's Lair Competition champions military innovation at Fort Bragg

By Faith Hatton, posted Aug 17, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com

U.S. Army soldiers gather for a group photo after the conclusion of Dragon’s Lair 12 at the Lieutenant General Gavin Joint Innovation Outpost on Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Dragon’s Lair 12 event offered soldiers a platform to pitch their ideas directly to senior leaders. Photo provided by Staff SGT. Brandon Hocson, XVIII Airborne Corps Public Affairs

Military service members came together on Thursday, July 30, 2026, for a day of soldier-led innovation.

The XVIII Airborne Corps hosted Dragon’s Lair 12, a “Shark tank” style pitch and innovation competition that allows soldiers to use their own experiences in the field to create new solutions to problems they’ve encountered. Judges, competitors, developers and supporters gathered at the LTG James M. Gavin Joint Innovation Outpost (JIOP) on Fort Bragg to see the latest in innovation.

The Dragon’s Lair 12 event offers soldiers a platform to pitch their ideas directly to civilian experts and senior leaders.

Contestants are given five minutes to present their innovations to an esteemed panel of five judges who are then given time to ask clarifying questions.

A total of 10 projects were presented by teams from across the United States Armed Forces providing unique answers to help the warfighter speed up diagnostics, streamline delivery of key equipment and resources, quickly and efficiently mount critical equipment and more.

JUDGES THEN SCORED THE INNOVATIONS ON THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:

The problem the project is trying to solve
The solution being proposed
The desirability and valuation of the project
The “ask” needed to continue the project
And the presentation quality

“For me, one of the primary concerns is the fieldability. Are we going to be able to get it into the field? Is it a reasonable question? Another one is the timeline to get it fielded,” shared Brig. Gen. Sean French of the XVIII Airborne Corps, who served as a judge for the competition.

Another judge, Col. Thomas Monaghan, director of the Joint Innovation Outpost Command, shared he was looking for projects that he may be able to help continue developing here at Fort Bragg. In combat, speed is pivotal for victory, meaning innovations presented today can be on the battlefield serving their purpose tomorrow.

“I’m concentrating on is it at a technology readiness level [to where] it’s something that I can procure, test it and roll it into a program executive office. How can I assist to prototype it even further?” shared Monaghan. “If I see something here that is materially ready, and at a technology readiness level that we can put into an operational test, I can award a cash award tonight and put it on contract and buy a couple of items. That’s never been done before.”

This year’s winners were SFC Brian Potts, 1st Special Warfare Training Group, and SPC Alex Kimbirskyi, 82nd Airborne Division, for their project The Night Haunter, a micro tactical payload delivery system with interchangeable payload cartridges that will allow units to shape the battlefield.

Both were awarded a Meritorious Service Medal and a school of choice memorandum from the XVIII Airborne Corps. Their project was also awarded $12,000 to continue prototyping and developing new features.

“The model that we have today is pretty close to the original sketch. We started this a little over a year ago; it required a lot of testing. We’ll use them for large- scale training exercises so that we can get that feedback on the ground in realistic scenarios and fine-tune everything,” shared Potts.

Other competitors were also recognized with the Army Commendation Medal for their innovations.

“The JIOP, we’re a conduit of information; I can make a call and say: ‘This is something that we need to look into, this is the problem.’ I can transmit that need directly to Army staff for further decision. That process never existed before, and I have a corps staff and a corps commander to back that,” concluded Monaghan.

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