ALABAMA: Defense Secretary Ashton Carter landed at Moffett Federal Airfield for his second appearance in Silicon Valley in four months to reassure technology industry leaders that the Pentagon views their work as vital to the future of national defense.
“I’ve been pushing the Pentagon to think outside our five-sided box and invest in innovation here in Silicon Valley and in tech communities across the country,” Carter said during a speech inside the world’s largest wind tunnel near the sprawling airfield. “Now we’re taking another step forward.”
He announced that the Pentagon was investing $75 million in a consortium of more than 100 companies, including Apple Inc. and Boeing Co., called the Flexible Hybrid Electronic Institute, which specializes in wearable electronics. Colleges and local governments will contribute an additional $96 million over five years.Flexible hybrid electronics are paper-thin sensors that could one day replace wiring and circuit boards on aircraft, ships and other weapons
