The Air Force Office of Scientific Research recently began funding several new initiatives that hope to improve defense operations from process prediction—understanding the surprise factor in complex systems—to analyzing blogs to determine patterns to aid in the war against terrorism. In other research, AFOSR believes it has developed a break-through in high energy laser technology involving an electric oxygen iodine laser research, solving a 30-year-old problem.
The first flight of the secretive B-21 bomber has slipped to mid-2022, but the program is moving along well, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director Randall Walden said in an exclusive interview. The second copy of the B-21, which will be used for structural testing, is now on the production…