USAF Touts Promising Research Despite Flat S&T Budget - Air Force Magazine

Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper said March 11 the Air Force is still working on promising research despite a largely stagnant science and technology budget request for fiscal 2021 that is worrying some lawmakers. As the U.S. looks to develop advanced military systems like improved hypersonic weapons and enabling technologies like artificial intelligence faster than Russia and China, Roper lamented that the service's research fund lost ground to more pressing priorities. Nuclear modernization, joint all-domain command and control, and the effort to stand up a Space Force pulled money and resources away from basic research in the 2021 request released last month. "Sometimes the innovation voices did not win at budget closeout," Roper said. "[There are] a lot of things on the Air Force's plate … and unfortunately when we had to make the budget balance, we had to look for areas to take risk."