Walk around any defense-industry trade show floor in the last several years, or talk to defense-industry company officials, and one of the most pressing topics is the “gray-hair” issue. Even though new crops of engineers certainly enter the profession every year, statistics do bear out the anecdotal evidence of the aging of the defense-industry workforce. The National Science Foundation (NSF) found in 2021 that nearly 30% of all engineering and science degree holders in the labor force were 50 or over and expected to retire in the following 15 years.

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. L3Harris Technologies recently delivered the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) space vehicle -- a satellite billed as an alternative to GPS -- to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) integration and test facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. 

WASHINGTON. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the14 Naval Warfare Centers signed a memorandum of understanding with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate in the area of quantum computing in order to exchange technical expertise collaborate on projects that will create useful quantum computing capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

BURLINGTON, Mass. BAE Systems has won a $7.8 million contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop tightly integrated machine learning (ML) software as part of the Multi-Sensor Exploitation for Tactical Autonomy (META) program, which is aimed at enabling advanced situational awareness and automatic target recognition (ATR).

SALT LAKE CITY.  Sarcos Defense has won a new contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop a collaborative sensing platform for the detection, tracking, and classification of time-critical objects in dynamic adversarial environments to benefit the Department of Defense (DoD).

PALMDALE, Calif. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), Lockheed Martin, and Aerojet Rocketdyne team have flight tested the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).

RESTON, Va. Leidos Inc. has won a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to produce a next-generation counter-electronic weapon (EW) system to defend against adversarial unmanned aerial system (UAS) activity.