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.
When Lt. Col. Dustin Johnson was ordered to deploy to the Middle East last year, he and his fellow F-22 Raptor pilots prepared for an unusual challenge. As America’s premier air superiority fighter, the F-22 was designed to take on advanced enemy aircraft, capable of maneuvering stealthily and cruising at supersonic…