The Air Force Materiel Command will set up a team within the Air Force Research Laboratory as part of its Strategic Development Planning initiative in support of the Defense Department’s Third Offset Strategy, the Air Force reported April 20.
Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, AFMC commander, said the new group will work to evaluate and deliver technology platforms across air, cyber and space domains designed to help the service branch deter and defeat potential adversaries in the future.
Derek Kaufman writes the team will consist of approximately 10 military and civilian Air Force personnel that will explore materiel and non-materiel platforms through collaboration with acquisition, operational and planning experts across the service branch.
“We’re going to use experimentation, we’re going to use modeling and simulation, as the tools to allow us to make that marriage, if you will, between what are the gaps, what are the challenges, and what concepts and technologies are we are going to bring to bear,†Pawlikowski said.
She noted that the new team will also assess the potential role of hypersonics, directed energy and other “game-changers†in future joint missions as well as consider the recommendations that former Army Secretary Claude Bolton Jr. and Paul Kaminski made in the Air Force Studies Board’s 2014 report.
