DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES

Abstract

The Defense Research Sciences Program Element is budgeted in the Basic Research Budget Activity because it provides the technical foundation for long-term National Security enhancement through the discovery of new phenomena and the exploration of the potential of such phenomena for Defense applications. It supports the scientific study and experimentation that is the basis for more advanced knowledge and understanding in information, electronic, mathematical, computer, and materials sciences. The Math and Computer Sciences project supports scientific study and experimentation on new mathematical and computational algorithms, models, and mechanisms in support of long-term national security requirements. Modern analytic and information technologies enable important new military capabilities and drive the productivity gains essential to U.S. economic competitiveness. Conversely, new classes of threats, in particular threats that operate in or through the cyber domain, put military systems, critical infrastructure, and the civilian economy at risk. This project aims to magnify these opportunities and mitigate these threats by leveraging emerging mathematical and computational capabilities including computational social science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and reasoning, data science, complex systems modeling and simulation, and theory of computation. The basic research conducted under the Math and Computer Sciences project will produce breakthroughs that enable new capabilities for national security and homeland defense. The Cyber Sciences project supports long-term national security requirements through scientific research and experimentation in cyber security. Information technologies enable important new military capabilities and drive the productivity gains essential to U.S. economic competitiveness. Meanwhile, cyber threats grow in sophistication and number, and put sensitive data, classified computer programs, mission-critical information systems, and future economic gains at risk. The basic research conducted under the Cyber Sciences project will produce breakthroughs necessary to enhance the resilience of DoD information systems to current and emerging cyber threats. The Electronic Sciences project is for basic exploration of electronic and optoelectronic devices, circuits, and processing concepts to meet the military's need for near real-time information gathering, transmission, and processing. In seeking to continue the phenomenal progress in microelectronics innovation that has characterized the last few decades, the project should provide DoD with new, improved, or potentially revolutionary device options for accomplishing these critical functions. The resulting technologies should help maintain knowledge of the enemy, communicate decisions based on that knowledge, and substantially improve the cost and performance of military systems. Research areas include analog, mixed signal, and photonic circuitry for communications and other applications; alternative computer architectures; and magnetic components to reduce the size of Electromagnetic (EM) and sensing systems. Other research could support field-portable electronics with reduced power requirements, ultra-high density information storage "on-a-chip", and new approaches to nanometer-scale structures, molecules, and devices. The Beyond Scaling Sciences project will support investigations into materials, devices, and architectures to provide continued improvements in electronics performance with or without the benefit of Moore's Law (silicon scaling). Within the next ten years, traditional scaling will start to encounter the fundamental physical limits of silicon, requiring fresh approaches to new electronic systems. Over the short term, DoD will therefore need to unleash circuit specialization in order to maximize the benefit of traditional silicon. Over the longer term, DoD and the nation will need to engage the computer, material, and mechanical sciences to explore electronics improvements through new non-volatile memory devices that combine computation, memory, and new automated design tools using machine learning. Other memory devices could also leverage an emerging understanding of the physics of magnetic states, electron spin properties, topological insulators, or phase-changing materials. Beyond Scaling programs will address fundamental exploration into each of these areas. The Materials Sciences project provides the fundamental research that underpins the design, development, assembly, and optimization of advanced materials, devices, and systems for DoD applications in areas such as robust diagnostics and therapeutics, novel energetic materials, and complex hybrid systems. The Transformative Sciences project supports research and analysis that leverages converging technological forces and transformational trends in information-intensive subareas of the social sciences, life sciences, manufacturing, and commerce. The project integrates these diverse disciplines to improve military adaptation to sudden changes in requirements, threats, and emerging/converging trends, especially trends that have the potential to disrupt military operations or threaten National Security. Specific research in this project will investigate technologies to enable detection of novel threat agents (e.g., bacterial pathogens) and maintain warfighter health, as well as create innovative materials of interest to the military (e.g., self-healing materials).

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2020
• Source ID: 0601101E_1_0400_PB_2020
• Change Summary Explanation: FY 2018: Decrease reflects Congressional reduction, SBIR/STTR transfer and reprogrammings. FY 2019: Increase reflects Congressional adjustments. FY 2020: Increase reflects expansion of Artificial Intelligence initiatives, offset by smaller program decreases.
• Service Agency Name: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Entities

Organizations

• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Advanced Electronics
• Autonomy
• Biomedical
• C4I
• Cyber
• Engineered Resilient Systems
• Human Systems
• Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Advanced Materials
• Artificial Intelligence
• Brain Injuries
• Computational Science
• Computer Architecture
• Computer Programs
• Computers
• Control Systems
• Data Science
• Engineered Materials
• Information Systems
• Materials Science
• Microelectromechanical Systems
• National Security
• Network Science
• Radio Frequency
• Robotics

Readers

• Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
• Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
• Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.

Technology Areas

• AI & ML
• AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy
• Cyber
• Cyber - Quantum
• Microelectronics