Pentagon tech chief wants an ‘all in one’ sensor

TAMPA, Fla. ― One particular of the Pentagon’s major tech officers needs an “all in one” sensor for protection function.

It is just one of numerous critical systems that Heidi Shyu, the undersecretary of defense for analysis and engineering, involved in remarks Wednesday at the Specific Operations Forces Field Conference in Florida.

“I’m interested in pushing the engineering towards a solitary sensor that has the means to hear, the capability to do jamming, the means to communicate, the capacity to inject, all in a person,” Shyu reported, without delivering distinct particulars of progress on this sort of an progression.

Some funding for that could appear from the up coming defense spending plan, for which Shyu’s office environment asked for $377 million in excess of the upcoming 5 a long time for speedy experimentation assignments, Protection Information claimed in April.

Even though that initiative awaits the threshing equipment recognised as the congressional spending plan cycle, some funds from very last 12 months is hitting the coffers for new technology.

Shyu claimed Wednesday that the Pentagon acquired $100 million particularly for “accelerated procurement and fielding” of innovating engineering from modest firms. The objective is to help tiny organizations move investigation do the job from the phase II to stage III levels in the governing administration analysis system, she claimed.

She’s also hopeful about funding a further initiative: a drive in the finances proposal for $52 billion to established up a microelectronics “foundry” in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the reality that the the vast majority of the world’s microprocessors are produced in Taiwan. That is a strategic chokepoint for everything from new pickup vehicles to advanced satellite methods. An onshore foundry for microelectronics would increase a further supply for these types of know-how.

It would also greater let college researchers and small U.S. organizations to experiment with new supplies for microelectronics, advancing the point out of the artwork in that field, she claimed.

But Shyu faces other budgetary issues. C4ISRNET claimed before this 7 days that lots of of the Pentagon’s $5.7 billion laboratory want checklist will very likely remain unfunded in this budget cycle. Which is due to the fact, for every a report acquired by Protection Information that mentioned 126 superior-precedence projects, navy services’ labs and screening services were excluded in the fiscal 2023 funds request for military services development.