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. This Program Element also supports innovation and robust transition planning in the technology cycle by working with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new capabilities for national defense. 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 objectives. 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 and homeland security. 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 supports 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, and 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, and manufacturing. The project integrates these diverse disciplines to eliminate reliance on foreign sources for critical materials, 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 and improve recovery. This project also includes efforts to create innovative materials of interest to the military (e.g., self-healing materials).

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2022
Source ID
0601101E_1_0400_PB_2022
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2020: Decrease reflects the SBIR/STTR transfer and reprogrammings offset by COVID response CARES Act add. FY 2021: Decrease reflects congressional adjustments. FY 2022: Decrease reflects completion of the Advanced Tools for Modeling and Simulation, Communicating With Computers, Complex Hybrid Systems, Magnetic Miniaturized and Monolithically Integrated Components (M3IC), A MEchanically Based Antenna (AMEBA), Engineered Living Materials (ELM), and Social Simulation (SocialSim) basic research programs in FY 2021.
Service Agency Name
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Entities

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Autonomy
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Languages
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Detection
  • Frequency Combs
  • Human-Machine Interaction
  • Human-Machine Systems
  • Information Operations
  • Information Processing
  • Information Systems
  • Knowledge Management
  • Materials Science
  • Psychology
  • Quantum Computing
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and 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

Related Documents