Tag Archives: Will Roper

The U.S. Air Force has built and flown a prototype of a new fighter aircraft using virtual tools as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance program. The report said the service developed a virtual prototype and a physical aircraft using data from the T-7 trainer and F-35 fighter jet programs under the NGAD program.

The U.S. Air Force has concluded the second field test for the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) to assess the platform’s capacity to thwart adversarial threats through space and ground infrastructure.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has opened an innovation hub for quantum research and development in Rome, N.Y., and is partnering with the academe on a competitive program focused on the emerging concept. AFRL said the Innovare Advancement Center will support the lab’s “Million Dollar International Quantum U Tech Accelerator” program.

Will Roper, assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics at the U.S. Air Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the service plans to publish on open source platforms some of its code to generate more insights from the cybersecurity community, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

The U.S. Air Force is transitioning its program office for the Project Maven artificial intelligence effort into the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) portfolio in a push to expand the latter's warfighting scope. “There is no distinction between development systems and warfighting systems anymore in IT,” said Roper. “ABMS and Maven are going to start blurring that line in September.”

The Defense Digital Service and the Department of the Air Force plan to host a series of virtual workshops and hacking contests that tackle space system security. The Space Security Challenge 2020 calls for security researchers to take part in a satellite hacking contest and virtual workshops from Aug. 7 to 9 as part of the DEF CON online event.

The U.S. Space Force and the U.K. military have agreed to jointly fund a competition that encourages startups to propose and develop space technologies. Participants of the International Space Pitch Day will get the chance to win part of a $1M pool allotted for space technology investment, Los Angeles Air Force Base said Monday.

Will Roper, assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics at the U.S. Air Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the service is expected to provide in the next few weeks new information on the “Digital Century Series” concept for aircraft procurement.

Twenty-three small businesses received $5.25 million in contract funds from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to accelerate research efforts for quantum technologies through the first phase of the Small Business Technology Transfer program. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has awarded 35 contracts worth $150,000 each during a two-day virtual quantum collider pitch event.

Will Roper, assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics at the U.S. Air Force and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the service is bringing in novel technologies from small businesses through its AFVentures initiative, National Defense reported Thursday.