Pentagon tech chief wants an ‘all in one’ sensor

TAMPA, Fla. ― 1 of the Pentagon’s top tech officials needs an “all in one” sensor for defense work.

It is a person of many critical technologies that Heidi Shyu, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, integrated in remarks Wednesday at the Distinctive Functions Forces Market Conference in Florida.

“I’m intrigued in pushing the technologies toward a single sensor that has the ability to listen, the ability to do jamming, the capacity to connect, the ability to inject, all in one,” Shyu claimed, with no giving precise specifics of progress on these types of an progression.

Some funding for that could come from the subsequent protection price range, for which Shyu’s business office requested $377 million about the next 5 yrs for quick experimentation projects, Protection Information documented in April.

Though that initiative awaits the threshing machine recognised as the congressional spending budget cycle, some income from very last year is hitting the coffers for new technological innovation.

Shyu reported Wednesday that the Pentagon received $100 million precisely for “accelerated procurement and fielding” of innovating technology from smaller corporations. The objective is to aid tiny providers go investigation work from the stage II to section III degrees in the govt analysis procedure, she stated.

She’s also hopeful about funding yet another initiative: a force in the funds proposal for $52 billion to set up a microelectronics “foundry” in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fact that the the greater part of the world’s microprocessors are produced in Taiwan. That is a strategic chokepoint for almost everything from new pickup vehicles to superior satellite devices. An onshore foundry for microelectronics would add an additional resource for these kinds of know-how.

It would also improved enable college researchers and small U.S. businesses to experiment with new elements for microelectronics, advancing the state of the artwork in that area, she stated.

But Shyu faces other budgetary challenges. C4ISRNET documented earlier this 7 days that lots of of the Pentagon’s $5.7 billion laboratory desire list will likely keep on being unfunded in this spending plan cycle. That is mainly because, per a report obtained by Defense Information that stated 126 high-priority projects, armed forces services’ labs and screening amenities were excluded in the fiscal 2023 budget ask for for military development.