Air Force Research branch in pursuit of innovation.

While many military agencies now are focusing on the next combat operation in Afghanistan, the Philippines or perhaps Iraq, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research is working to develop technologies to fight wars decades from now.

"The lesson that I have learned is that you better keep moving," Lyle H. Schwartz, the office's director, said in a recent interview. "The reason that we have better technology than our current enemies is that we invested 20 or 30 years back. I want the United States to have the technological edge in the next fight."

Schwartz's office, known as AFOSR, is one of 10 directorates within the Air Force Research Laboratory. Its mission is to manage the service's basic research program. The office--headquartered in Arlington, Va.--includes a staff of more than 150 scientists, engineers and support personnel.

AFOSR doesn't conduct research, he said. It invests in research in scientific areas that are relevant to the Air Force.

It then passes the fruits of that work to industry, which makes aircraft and other equipment for the service; to the academic community, which can use it to conduct further studies, and to other directorates of the AFRL, which are conducting their own projects.

The actual research is performed by teams of scientists in universities, industry and other parts of the AFRL. With an annual budget of about $200 million, the AFOSR provides approximately 1,200 grants and contracts at more than 300 academic institutions, 145 corporations and 150 projects within the AFRL.

The office also funds research programs by other Defense Department organizations, including the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and the Missile Defense Agency. Eighty percent of the work is performed by academia and industry.

The AFOSR funds undergraduate and graduate student research, fellowships for graduate students and postdoctoral assignments at Air Force laboratories, Schwartz said. Also, he noted, university faculty members are sponsored in summer programs, as well as for sabbaticals, at the service's laboratories.

In addition, as part of this program, Air Force researchers visit and work at laboratories in the United States and overseas. The AFOSR works with the international community through its offices in London and Tokyo.

"An important part of our role is to reach out to the scientific community outside of the Air Force," Schwartz said.

The AFOSR celebrated its 50th anniversary in April. Over the years, AFOSR-sponsored research has won 43 Nobel Prizes. The office supported development of laser technology, the computer mouse, precision-guided munitions and stealthy aircraft, Schwartz said.

The office recently identified six basic research themes, which Schwartz said offer "vast potential" for the Air Force. About 20 percent of the office's basic research funding, has been set aside for work related to the themes, which include:

* Biologically inspired concepts. "Animals do some pretty interesting things that could be important to the Air Force," Schwartz said. "Snakes, for example, are capable of detecting infrared at room temperatures. If we could do that, it might help us do a better job at pinpointing targets. We don't necessarily want to use the biology itself, we just want to understand how nature does it."

The field of study is called biomimetics, meaning literally to imitate life, Schwartz said. AFOSR-sponsored scientists also are studying how fish and jellyfish generate their own light to indicate toxicity, to deceive predators and to help in the mating process. Other biomimetics research is focusing on biological triggers--those molecules responsible for an organism's initial electromagnetic stimulus detection reaction. Scientists are trying to find ways to use those triggers in synthetic optical detection systems.

* Cooperative control. AFOSR wants to develop the ability of unmanned platforms to interact with each other in combat, "flying in formation, like a swarm of bees," Schwartz said. "It's a wonderful concept, but it's extremely difficult to do."

Key research topics in this area include adaptive decision making, optimization and real-time path planning, man-machine interaction, autonomy for remotely operated vehicles and understanding biologically-inspired concepts for new sensing and actuation applications for guidance and control.

* Plasma dynamics. The Air Force wants to learn more about how to use plasmas--high-temperature, ionized gases--to control subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic aircraft speeds. The objective is to develop scientific bases for how plasmas can improve aerodynamic characteristics and the efficiency of propulsion, Schwartz said.

Research focuses on understanding the physics associated with the plasmas used to control subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic flows. Scientists are conducting demonstrations to prove plasma-control effects and to determine how to engineer them into operational systems.

"We've spent an enormous amount of money in this field, but we really don't understand the technology yet," Schwartz noted. In the mid-1990s, he said, "some new ideas surfaced at laboratories in Russia," and the Air Force is funding research there.

* Miniaturized science for space. The service wants to launch much lighter, more compact, highly-capable micro-satellites and nanosatellites. "It costs an enormous amount to put things into space," Schwartz said. "If we could reduce the weight of a satellite by a factor of 10, we could put up 10 times as many. I saw one at the Air Force Academy that was about one foot cubed and weighed about 50 pounds."

Enabling technologies include nanopropulsion, smart skins, organic memory cells, radiation-hardened quantum-effect electronics, nanotribology, microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems, or MEMS/NEMS, for space.

* Quantum computing. This new way of processing information by harnessing the physical phenomena unique to quantum mechanics "opens up a whole new way of doing computations," Schwartz said. "Code makers care a great deal about that." Quantum computing is being used to improve cryptography, computer searching, very rapid mathematical computations and simulations of quantum-mechanical systems, Schwartz noted.

The AFSOR's objective, he explained, is to explore the physical implementations of quantum computing, compatible algorithms and architectures, and to simulate complex physical systems that cannot be solved strictly by classical means.

* Materials engineering for affordable new systems. "A lot of advances in materials have been pretty empirical," based on observation or experimentation, Schwartz said.

To speed things up and reduce costs, the Air Force wants to increase the use of modeling and simulation and to emphasize parallel, rather than serial, design of components, he said.

The AFOSR objective is to create the scientific basis for materials development, using physics-based modeling, computational design tools and selective experimentation.

These long-term projects are not likely to have an immediate impact, for example, in the war on terrorism, Schwartz said. "After September, we did some introspection and tried to improve our understanding of our role in national defense," he said. "Usually, we focus on a broad array of technology that takes a long nine to mature.

"Occasionally, somebody sends us a query or request that suggests a new line of research," Schwartz said. Sometimes, he explained, that research provides the Air Force with revolutionary leaps, rather than evolutionary steps forward. The AFOSR's role is to "act as a friendiy broker to bring that query together with a researcher," Schwartz said.

The problem, he added, is that AFOSR resources are down almost 40 percent in purchasing power since the 1980s. They dropped rather rapidly in the 1990s, he said.

Meanwhile, "scientific productivity is increasing almost exponentially," he said. "There are more and more ideas out there all the time, but not more money."

RELATED ARTICLE: Got a Bright Idea? Here's How to Proceed With It

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research solicits proposals for basic research through a general Broad Agency Announcement and a number of specialized BAAs. Proposals are invited in the following broad areas: Physics, solid mechanics and structures, chemistry, mathematics and computer sciences, electronics, structural materials, fluid mechanics, propulsion, atmospheric sciences, space sciences, biological sciences, human performance, and science and engineering-education programs.

The general BAA also has a number of researcher assistance programs, including the Air Force-National Research Council Resident Research Associateship Program, the University Resident Research Program and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program.

Specialized BAAs outline specific programs in which the Air Force has a high interest. Examples include the University Research Initiative, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Minority Institution programs.

Each BAA specifies deadlines, proposal formats and other stipulations. For details, see the AFOSR Web site, www.afosr.af.mil.

AF Research Lab Operates Nine Technology Offices

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory, which is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Ohio. The AFRL has nine other technology directorates. Five are located at Wright-Patterson, including Air Vehicles, Materials and Manufacturing Propulsion, Sensors and Human Effectiveness.

Two-Space Vehicles and Directed Energy--are at Kirtland Air Force Base, in California. In addition, the Munitions Directorate is found at Florida's Eglin Air Force Base, and the Information Directorate is based at Rome Air Force Base, in New York.