NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNTIL RELEASED BY HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND EMERGING THREATS AND CAPABILITIES U S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE PRESENTATION TO THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND EMERGING THREATS AND CAPABILITIES U S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HEARING DATE TIME March 11 2020 2 00 P M SUBJECT Fiscal Year 2021 Air Force Science and Technology Strategy Policy and Programs STATEMENT OF Dr William B Roper Jr Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Technology and Logistics NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNTIL RELEASED BY HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND EMERGING THREATS AND CAPABILITIES U S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Strategic Environment and Addressing the National Defense Strategy Chairman Langevin Ranking Member Stefanik and distinguished Members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on the Fiscal Year 2021 Department of the Air Force Science and Technology S T Program and our continued efforts to respond to the warfighter faster while simultaneously developing the future force As the nature and sources of conflict have become more diverse and less predictable our nation continues to face a complex set of current and future security challenges including the resurgence of great power competition from China and Russia The rapid proliferation of global technology means the speed at which we change must increase It is clear that supremacy in the air and space domains—a given for any U S military operation since the end of the Cold War—can no longer be presumed without deliberate investments in leap-ahead technology Consequently the National Defense Strategy shifts our priority including those for S T to high-end warfighting The Department of the Air Force has fully embraced Secretary of Defense Esper’s goal of irreversible momentum toward National Defense Strategy implementation The Department of the Air Force must be ready to compete deter and win in this rapidly changing and increasingly complex security environment defend the homeland provide a safe secure and effective nuclear deterrent be able to defeat a powerful conventional enemy while we deter opportunistic aggression in another theater and continue to disrupt violent extremists These missions require that the Department of the Air Force develop innovative technologies more rapidly and integrate new technologies both Defense and commercial onto military systems with unmatched agility Competing across the entire technology ecosystem is a new challenge for the Department—especially with 80 percent of our nation’s R D now commercial—but it is one on which we have made much progress As the Department of the Air Force budget request highlights we are committed to sustaining 2 our S T portfolio and driving innovation across the enterprise The Department of the Air Force Fiscal Year 2021 FY21 President’s Budget request for S T is $2 8 billion Our investment in S T for FY21 grew by $7 0 million over the FY20 President’s Budget request In addition to S T funding the Department of the Air Force FY21 budget request includes approximately $1 3 billion in prototyping and experimentation funding focused on getting technology into the hands of warfighters to determine military utility and inform requirements for future force capabilities Additionally we have seen a threefold return on investment increase in our Small Business Innovative Research SBIR and Small Business Technology Transition Research STTR accounts since implementing what we now call our “Air Force Ventures” process in 2018 In the FY21 PB the Department of the Air Force restructured our S T Program Element structure to increase agility Today technology associated with future warfighting must be more integrated across disciplines providing integrated capabilities vice stand-alone solutions Twentyseven Program Elements PEs have been merged into 19 including realigning existing projects from the current 13 Budget Activity BA 6 3 Advanced Technology Development PEs into five new capability-focused BA 6 3 PEs We also created a new BA 6 2 Applied Research PE to serve as an incubator for transformational S T efforts In only two months we went from 236 new applied research concepts to 7 we are exploring at max speed PE consolidation gives our S T enterprise greater ability both to adapt to change and work across disciplines We ask for Congress to support this initiative which we are looking to continue in the future As part of implementing the NDS our S T portfolio also now includes larger initiatives called Vanguard Programs meant to accelerate the transition of war-winning capabilities into programs of record The Vanguard Programs focus on five strategic thrusts meant to dominate time space and complexity across all operating domains 3 • Global Persistent Awareness – continuous and timely knowledge of our adversaries through the operating environment • Resilient Information Sharing – assured and resilient communications and precise position navigation and timing across all Joint Force assets • Rapid Effective Decision-Making – use of automation and artificial intelligence to accelerate battlespace knowledge and decision-making faster than our adversary • Complexity Unpredictability and Mass – overwhelming adversaries with complexity unpredictability and numbers and • Speed and Reach of Disruption and Lethality – exploiting new methods to rapidly attack disrupt and neutralize dynamic and mobile targets with speed and global reach Vanguards This new Vanguard initiative designed to accelerate technology from the Air Force Research Laboratory into programs of record is modeled after the rapid-prototyping process used by the Strategic Capabilities Office Specific Vanguard efforts are approved by the Department of the Air Force Capability Development Council co-chaired by the Under Secretary of the Air Force and the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force signifying an enterprise commitment for each effort Warfighters future force designers technologists and program managers ensure technical feasibility operational utility and a solid business case to work through the complexities of implementation and facilitate transition into acquisition and fielding S T funds will be dedicated to complete the S T components of each Vanguard effort To accelerate Vanguard transitions Program Executive Officers PEOs are designated upfront to develop and execute an acquisition strategy in collaboration with the Technology Executive Officer TEO Upon successful prototyping and experimentation the Department of the Air Force will transition the technology into an operational capability We recently approved the first three Vanguards Navigation Technology Satellite 3 NTS-3 Skyborg and Golden 4 Horde NTS-3 is the first Satellite Navigation SATNAV space experiment in 40 years The program will develop advanced techniques to provide military civil and commercial users with a more resilient SATNAV capability If successful these techniques will transition to future generations of the Global Positioning System GPS satellites and receivers Launch of NTS-3 is currently projected for 2023 with a planned one-year on-orbit experimentation program Skyborg integrates Artificial Intelligence AI with autonomous Unmanned Air Vehicles UAVs to enable manned-unmanned teaming AI technologies ranging from simple algorithms to fully autonomous flight controls will be worked in partnership with our AI Accelerator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology If successful Skyborg will transition AI-enabled low-cost attritable aircraft technology LCAAT via the NGAD program or a new program of record The first LCAAT the XQ-58A Valkyrie has already demonstrated high subsonic speeds at operationally relevant altitudes and payload capacities Its next flight in April 2020 will connect the F-22 and F-35 via the gatewayONE radio link as part of the next Advanced Battle Management System ABMS demonstration Golden Horde will demonstrate collaborative semi-autonomous networked weapons that share data interact and execute coordinated actions to defeat targets Golden Horde will leverage onboard radios and algorithms to share data between weapons as well as manned platforms Flight testing with existing weapons will begin this year and if successful those weapons programs will transition Golden Horde upgrades into their respective programs of record Global Persistent Awareness and Resilient Information Sharing Quantum Advanced Communications 5G and Microelectronics 5 The Department of the Air Force continues to invest in quantum information science in three specific areas quantum timing and quantum sensing e g sensors and clocks used for navigation detection and force orchestration quantum communications e g advanced secure tamper-evident communications and networking enabled by fundamental quantum effects and quantum computing e g storage devices specialized circuits and algorithms operating on data maintained in superposition While quantum technologies may have longer development timeframes their impacts are expected to be far-reaching allowing local GPS-like accuracy new scales of computation and new detection modes that obsolesce current ones We can ill afford to fall behind Consequently we are increasing our outreach to industry and academia to ensure our scientists and engineers remain on the cutting edge of quantum science For a second year the Department of the Air Force co-sponsored the Quantum for Business Q2B event where industry leaders gather to hear the latest announcements explore partnership opportunities and collaborate on practical applications of quantum science In May 2019 we formed a partnership with IBM to establish AFRL as an IBM Q Network Hub which provides the Department of the Air Force and its collaborators access to IBM’s commercial quantum computing systems to explore practical applications important to our two Services The IBM Q Network has established Quantum Hubs across the world to increase access to quantum systems and advanced research which is critical to accelerate learning skills development and implementation of quantum computing This year we are stepping forward with a two-day Quantum Collider event offering $50 million to small businesses to boost the quantum ecosystem by pairing them with university expertise in quantum fields 5G is an important communications technology being deployed world-wide with heavy commercial investment 5G provides critical underlying infrastructure for the “Internet of Things” IoT where all devices will be connected to a global network This will be especially important as we work to maintain warfighting dominance through Joint All-Domain Command and Control 6 JADC2 powered by the Advanced Battle Management System ABMS which builds the digital infrastructure for the Joint Force’s IoT We are exploring ways to exploit 5G in this endeavor and are working with industry to install on three Air Force bases We would be happy to share more information about these efforts in a classified setting Reliance on foreign microelectronics jeopardizes our ability to modernize our military systems in the future The problem is three-fold low market share an expansive range of needs from boutique and legacy components to state-of-the-art technologies and a lack of domestic trusted foundries to manufacture trusted microelectronics In FY20 we are executing over $300 million to modernize microelectronic design and provide Department of Defense access to the commercial microelectronics supply chain In FY21 we will leverage the latest digital engineering capabilities to develop a cloud-based microelectronics infrastructure that provides traceability and provenance across the entire microelectronics lifecycle Cyber and Big Data Analytics Every day we encounter sophisticated and persistent adversaries in cyberspace The Department of the Air Force’s cyber S T investment is integral to assuring communications across physical and security domains protecting our legacy and future avionics systems countering global threats to mission performance and expanding available bandwidth through dynamic spectrum access We are enhancing cyberspace resiliency through an effective mix of redundancy diversity and distributed functionality that leverages advances in virtualization and cloud technologies The Department of the Air Force is focused on securing our weapons systems We must be vigilant in our cyber hygiene as we are sharing a global hardware supply chain and harnessing more rapid software development best practices This past year the Air Force Research Laboratory sponsored an “attack the base” challenge at the DEFCON Security Conference an annual event which brings together over 30 000 of the world’s best security researchers hackers 7 and industry incubators to advance the cyber resiliency of many industries We identified DEFCON as an ideal open environment to harness the best-of-breed in the security research community The top prize awarded for our “attack the base” challenge was an internship where time is split between the embedded security industry and the Department of the Air Force Use of this out-of-the-box approach provided access to the best cybersecurity candidates by leveraging competitive technical challenges This year we will be returning to DEFCON to bridge the security and space communities by holding a research challenge to penetrate a satellite i e “hack-a-sat” and its ground and radio frequency components The challenge will not only enhance our space system and infrastructure resiliency it will contribute to the development of relationships with top cybersecurity professionals and build awareness about space cybersecurity as more companies—and more of our economy—depend on it We are also leveraging Big Data technology to provide analytic capabilities across multiple modes of intelligence including virtualization distributed computing and machine learning to achieve operational agility through superior decision speed Our S T portfolio is investing in prototype development of an expandable cloud processing analytic capability that combines Signals Intelligence Moving Target Indicator radar and other data sources This infrastructure provides the necessary tools for data scientists to engage with large-scale military data sets so we are excited to see what doors this opens in the future Space and Fully Networked C3 Our adversaries have recognized the advantages we gain from operating in space and are developing capabilities to deny us this advantage in case of crisis or war Consequently our space S T portfolio is broad in scope spanning basic research published in world-renowned scientific journals to conducting operations on satellites assembled by our government workforce to classified activities Our space S T portfolio invests in five specific disciplines space environment 8 nuclear deterrence operations space domain awareness communication position navigation and timing and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance including missile warning We continue to explore and mature a number of space resiliency technologies through onorbit space experimentation In June 2019 we launched the Demonstration Science Experiment DSX In July it successfully deployed two booms at 80 meters to become the largest unmanned structure ever in space The DSX satellite is now performing a series of basic research experiments including investigating the physics of radiation belt remediation techniques In another effort called “Global Lightning” AFRL researchers are experimenting with communication pathways that leverage the emerging commercial space internet Our approach is to be an early adopter and influencer of this commercial technology In December of last year we conducted a test in which a SpaceX communications terminal onboard an Air Force Special Operations Command AC-130 was used to communicate target coordinates from Advanced Battle Management System ABMS sensors through the Starlink commercial space internet constellation to Army forces This April during our next ABMS experiment we will test communications through the Starlink constellation with a KC-135 This effort will continue to build the connective backbone for ABMS in four-month iterative cycles as we build out the military’s IoT Rapid Effective Decision-Making and Complexity Unpredictability and Mass Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence The Department of the Air Force is committed to operationalizing Artificial Intelligence AI to move inside the adversary decision cycle To address near-term operational challenges we initiated an AI accelerator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology staffed by Airmen from the operational community The Department of the Air Force looks to connect with the world’s best 9 scientists and engineers to field practical AI solutions for real-world national security challenges We are excited about future possibilities our partnership with MIT will enable as world-leading principle investigators are now engaged on technical problems in Vanguard programs as well as at our Kessel Run software development center-of-excellence Last year Air Force researchers successfully integrated AI into DoD Intelligence Analysis for the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System DCGS “FuelAI” is a cutting-edge AI-enabled and government-owned Full Motion Video FMV crowdsource labeling application that enables the tagging characterizing and analysis of a large amount of data at unprecedented speeds The datasets produced at Air Force DCGS sites enable researchers to train AI algorithms for specific national defense missions Additionally AFRL created and deployed the Deep Learning Video Pipeline DLVP in conjunction with industry partners DLVP is a government-owned S T framework to insert artificial intelligence algorithms into FMV intelligence operations rapidly Through FuelAI and DLVP we have established a higher standard of trust for human-machine partnerships by embedding data labeling directly into our intelligence processes Artificial Intelligence applications such as FuelAI will be most effective in the future fight if the computing can be done at the tactical edge In September 2019 we completed a demonstration moving us closer to providing this capability to the warfighter by leveraging Agile Condor a highperformance computing architecture which can be mounted on various platforms that will be used to demonstrate artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies The team built upon the Agile Condor’s embedded High Performance Computing open system and neuromorphic computing technologies to deliver on-board advanced computing with superior processing capabilities AI and advanced autonomy introduce new opportunities for unmanned air platforms The Department of the Air Force continues to demonstrate the Low Cost Attritable Aircraft the XQ-58A Valkyrie The Valkyrie completed three flights this past year flying at high subsonic speeds and 10 operationally relevant altitudes The XQ-58A Valkyrie is the first instantiation of a class of attritable aircraft which opens the door to new manned-unmanned concepts being explored in the Skyborg program This year we will assess the military utility of various LCAAT through an experimentation campaign focused on reliability maintainability sustainment and life cycle cost We appreciate the support of Congress on these effort including the additional $100 million it appropriated in the FY20 Defense Appropriations Bill Disruption and Lethality Hypersonics An operational hypersonic air-launched weapon enables the U S to put high-value timesensitive targets at risk in contested environments We remain committed to developing an operational hypersonic strike weapon capability by the end of FY22 We have pursued two rapid prototyping efforts to achieve this objective the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon ARRW which is based on our joint Air Force DARPA Tactical Boost Glide S T demonstrator and the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon HCSW which is based on the Conventional Prompt Strike program Over the past year ARRW successfully fired a new solid rocket motor completed warhead design verification and completed several captive carry flights of the Instrumented Measurement Vehicle These activities have reduced risk and ARRW is on track to deliver capability in FY22 HCSW also had many successes including transition of Conventional Prompt Strike technology from the laboratory to industry The HCSW team pioneered significant advancements including maturing component technologies that may be used by other Department of Defense hypersonic programs and was also on track to deliver capability in FY22 The Air Force down-selected to a single concept a year earlier than originally planned with ARRW being selected as the higher-capacity weapon We will take HCSW through Critical Design Review later this month to document its design should it be needed in the design of future solutions The Section 804 Rapid Prototyping Authorities 11 granted by Congress accelerated both programs by four-to-five years allowing this early down-select to be done with greater confidence In addition to boost-glide weapons we are also accelerating our development of hypersonic cruise missiles in partnership with DARPA The Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept HAWC is maturing and integrating critical technologies for an effective air-launched scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile First flight will be later this year To accelerate our ability to prototype such demonstrators our S T portfolio includes wide-reaching investments in propulsion technology advanced materials manufacturing technology sensors and algorithms and aero-structures Directed Energy Directed Energy Weapons DEWs offer transformational capabilities to defeat massed attacks effectively affordably and rapidly Disruption and lethality at light speed will have broad impacts on how future wars will be fought and won As part of the Department of the Air Force’s Directed Energy Experimentation Campaign we are conducting the first-ever extensive overseas field evaluation consisting of five counter-unmanned aerial systems—three high energy laser systems and two high power microwave systems In addition five to six additional systems are in procurement and will ship within 18 months We are putting DEWs for base protection in the hands of the warfighter to get feedback on training maintenance operations and logistics to inform requirements for a future program of record The Self-protect HighEnergy Laser Demonstrator SHiELD a podded aircraft-protect laser demonstrator has validated its lethality models and tracking algorithms by using the ground-based Demonstrator Laser Weapon System to shoot down missiles at White Sands Missile Range We also continue to partner with the Navy on the High-power Joint Electromagnetic Non-Kinetic Strike HiJENKS effort which is an initiative to integrate a counter-electronic payload on an airborne platform 12 Biotechnology The National Defense Strategy highlights the role of rapid advancements in biotechnologies for national security Biotechnology tools and technologies are revolutionizing virtually every industrial sector and presents opportunities for defense innovation in a number of domains including specialty materials manufacturing novel sensors warfighter performance optimization and security Using synthetic biology we are developing approaches to secure the supply chain in critical materials for aerospace systems protect our Airmen from directed energy and exploit vulnerabilities for directed energy weapons For example our basic research partnership with Australia has resulted in an ultraprecise ultrasound sensor on a silicon chip The technology is so sensitive that it can hear the miniscule random forces from surrounding air molecules We will soon have the ability to listen to the sound emitted by living bacteria and cells In the health and performance area of research we are focused on advances in cognitive sciences for developing optimized and resilient human-machine teams Integrated Cockpit Sensing integrates bio-physical sensors with a common data storage platform to provide standalone pilot alerting capabilities The sensors enhance pilot decision-making and provide in-flight data needed to perform root-cause analysis of physiological events Integrated Cockpit Sensing will improve operational readiness by preventing mishaps and aircraft groundings and enable increased pilot awareness during flight Accelerating Commercial Technology to the Warfighter With over 80 percent of our nation’s research and development R D now commercial—and our Defense Industrial Base continuing to shrink through mergers and acquisitions—transforming the way we work with commercial tech companies is imperative In 2018 we began energizing our Small Business Innovative Research Small Business Technology Transfer Program SBIR STTR to lower barriers for commercial tech companies speed contracts and bring private investment into the 13 Defense market In 2019 alone we awarded over 1 000 contracts worth $240 million to 700 companies with over half new to the government conducted 15 “Pitch Days” that awarded $77 million in same-day contracts and induced over $400 million of private investment matching for companies receiving Department of the Air Force awards Our research laboratories were integral to this success providing technical expertise to help evaluate commercial technology opportunities and risks Given the threefold return on investment increase we have experienced since 2018 we will formally launch this new “Air Force Ventures” process at scale so that tech companies can depend on us as an early innovation partner of choice Working with tech startups is only part of how we are working with the commercial technology ecosystem We recently launched Agility Prime a non-traditional program run in partnership between our PEO for Mobility and AFRL seeking to operationalize commercial electric vertical takeoff and landing eVTOL vehicles i e “flying cars” for military missions and accelerate the emerging commercial eVTOL market in the United States The Department of the Air Force has unique testing and safety resources—and revenue-generating military use cases—to help mitigate current commercial market and regulatory risks Agility Prime will use these resources vice significant R D funding to attract investors build confidence and hopefully expedite commercialization all while providing warfighters revolutionary flexibility for numerous missions We recently released an Innovative Capabilities Opening that establishes the rapid contracting mechanism to explore and potentially field transformative vertical flight aircraft within three years and the program will host a challenge series this year to select vehicles certify safety and airworthiness procure systems for the most promising missions and reach operational capability by FY23 Expanding our R D enterprise from creator to catalyst is key for accelerating dual-use 14 technology and countering the advantages of state-sponsored industrial bases We appreciate the support of Congress on this effort including the additional $25 million it appropriated in the FY20 Defense Bill Supporting Innovation – People Infrastructure and Authorities Our S T Strategy recognizes that technological superiority depends on the talent and innovative spirit of our workforce Competition for highly-qualified technical talent will continue to intensify We appreciate Congress’ support of our ability to recruit retain and develop the Air Force science technology engineering and mathematics STEM workforce The National Defense Authorization Acts of the past several years have provided additional personnel authorities to the S T community In order to stay competitive we used direct-hire authorities to gain over 300 personnel from academia and industry in 2019 The authorities allow us to attract the right talent for the right positions in the least amount of time which is vital to our competitiveness We will continue to use this critical authority for years to come The competition for the right talent drives us to focus on our processes and policies to recruit hire and retain top talent—our people are our foundation The Air Force Research Laboratory is implementing a workforce pilot using executive headhunter recruitment firms for hard-to-fill senior leader positions resulting in large and diverse candidate pools In October 2019 we used the enhanced pay authority EPA to hire a Data Analytics advisor and more EPA positions are in-theworks for Communications and Networking Modeling Simulation and Analysis and Microelectronics Maintaining our technology advantage also requires hiring technology leaders at industry-comparable speeds The Air Force Research Laboratory is focused on internal processes to expedite hiring timelines provide better data to supervisors on their hiring decisions and generate more dialogue between supervisors and employees We appreciate the authorities Congress has given us to compete for talent and will implement them to the maximum extent possible 15 The STEM K-12 Outreach Program managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory is also an important component to building the workforce of the future STEM K-12 Outreach allows us to attract students to possible Department of the Air Force careers Making it easy for students to envision a future where they can intern receive a paid STEM scholarship and then be hired to design future capabilities our nation needs is of utmost importance to compete for talent Laboratory Infrastructure Science and technology-focused infrastructure is an important innovation multiplier Last year we broke ground on two Department of the Air Force laboratory MILCON projects the Advanced Munitions Technology Complex AMTC a $75 million research facility on Eglin AFB and the Space Vehicles Component Development Laboratory SVCDL a $13 million research facility on Kirtland AFB Technologies developed at the AMTC will reduce the size of munitions without sacrificing weapon effects Lighter munitions allow current and next generation aircraft to carry greater numbers of weapons increasing mission effectiveness The AMTC is scheduled for completion in 2021 The Space Control Laboratory SVCDL will consolidate efforts being conducted at six different facilities on Kirtland AFB and will advance research in space domain awareness command and control of space systems and survivability of space assets The SCL is also scheduled for completion in 2021 We continuously assess laboratory infrastructure to determine how to support technology needs Our recently conducted five-year facility plan identified 533 future infrastructure projects We look forward to working with Congress to ensure our facilities continue to meet the needs of future warfighters Conclusion The Department of the Air Force’s S T Portfolio is shaped to deliver capabilities that are lethal resilient and cost-imposing for our adversaries While the technologies we invest in are critically 16 important the pace at which we must innovate and respond is even more significant Whatever the next game-changing technology is we must create or catalyze it faster than our adversaries or risk ceding the dominant tech advantage in air space and cyberspace that our nation has relied upon for decades 17