Story highlights SOFWERX looks like a start-up aiming to improve the work of Special Forces

It can serve as a faster alternative to the bureaucratic acquisitions process for military equipment

Tampa (CNN) In a historic building where Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill once laid their heads and where, more recently, tattoo artists plied their trade, US Special Operations Command has now set up shop, hoping to find the next big thing in battlefield gadgetry.

Students, professors and members of the military come together in this non-traditional military lab tucked away in Tampa's Ybor City that seems more like a Silicon Valley tech start-up than an arm of the US military.

It's called SOFWERX, and it's the brainchild of US Special Operations Command headquartered just a few miles away at MacDill Air Force Base.

"What we wanted to create was an inviting place," said James Guerts, acquisition executive at Special Operations Command, "somewhere you would want to come to work, where if you're a 19-year-old and you have a great idea, you'd be happy to come here."

Indeed, anyone with thoughts on how to make the life of Special Operators easier and more effective is invited to walk in off the street.

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