Pentagon
teams up with Apple, Boeing to develop wearable tech
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[August 28, 2015]
By David Alexander
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (Reuters) - The
Pentagon is teaming up with Apple, Boeing, Harvard and others to develop
high-tech sensory gear flexible enough to be worn by people or molded
onto the outside of a jet.
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The rapid development of new technologies is forcing the Pentagon
to seek partnerships with the private sector rather than developing
its technology itself, defense officials say.
"I've been pushing the Pentagon to think outside our five-sided box
and invest in innovation here in Silicon Valley and in tech
communities across the country," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said
in prepared remarks on Friday.
"Now we’re taking another step forward."
The new technology aims to use high-end printing technologies to
create stretchable electronics that could be embedded with sensors
and worn by soldiers, a defense official said, and could ultimately
be used on ships or warplanes for real-time monitoring of their
structural integrity.
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The U.S. government is contributing $75 million over five years, he
said, and companies, managed by the U.S. Air Force Research
Laboratory, will add $90 million, with local governments chipping in
more to take the total to $171 million.
Carter said the FlexTech Alliance comprised 162 companies,
universities and other groups, from Boeing, Apple and Harvard, to
Advantest Akron Polymer Systems and Kalamazoo Valley Community
College.
He was due to announce the award formally in a speech on Friday at
Moffett Federal Airfield, which is operated by NASA's Ames Research
Center near Mountain View, in Silicon Valley.
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Carter visited California four months ago to create an outreach
office to forge ties with the tech community and will visit that
office on Friday.
The defense chief also plans to meet the Defense Science Board for a
briefing on a study it is doing on the level of autonomy that
military drones and robots should have in future.
The Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Hub, which
will be based in San Jose, is the seventh of nine such institutes
planned by the Obama administration in an effort to revitalize
several U.S. manufacturing sectors, several of them defense-related.
The Pentagon's initial experience with the institutes was in 2012
when it established one to help develop 3-D printing.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
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