WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is searching for authority to contribute to NATO’s protection know-how accelerator, which the group created final 12 months to help cooperation amongst allied nations on rising applied sciences like hypersonics, synthetic intelligence, house and quantum.
The request — a part of a package deal of legislative proposals despatched to Congress in late April and posted on-line Could 16 — seeks permission to take part within the Protection Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, generally known as DIANA.
“Permitting the U.S. Division of Protection to take part within the NATO DIANA initiative would help implementation of some necessary components of the NATO agenda,” DoD stated in its proposal. “Absent new statutory authority enacted because of this vital legislative proposal, the US will be unable to take part in DIANA or different important, successor, jointly-funded NATO analysis and growth applications.”
The division desires to allot $12.5 million to DIANA in fiscal 2024 and one other $35 million between FY25 and FY28, in response to the proposal.
The hassle is collectively funded, which implies NATO doesn’t draw from the frequent fund that allies are required to contribute towards. As a substitute, member nations select whether or not to pay into DIANA.
The Pentagon in February appointed Jeffrey Singleton, U.S. principal member and head of the delegation to the NATO Science and Know-how Board, because the U.S. consultant to DIANA’s board of administrators.
Protection Information reported in March that DIANA will launch its first competitors collection this fall, set to happen in 5 cities: Tallinn, Estonia; Turin, Italy; Copenhagen, Denmark; Boston; and Seattle.
In the course of the occasions, corporations will use rising know-how to unravel real-world protection challenges. NATO plans to ask members to use for the competitors this summer season.
DIANA’s 2023 know-how priorities embody vitality resilience, sensing, surveillance and safe data sharing. Together with boosting NATO partnerships on know-how growth, DIANA can be making a grant program to help startups with tasks targeted on protection or NATO-related efforts.
This system has greater than 100 affiliated take a look at facilities throughout almost each nation that companions with NATO. That features 28 “deep-tech” accelerators, two of that are positioned in North America.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s house and rising know-how reporter. She has coated the U.S. navy since 2012, with a concentrate on the Air Drive and Area Drive. She has reported on a number of the Protection Division’s most vital acquisition, price range and coverage challenges.