Michael Honda: Silicon Valley to get a Manufacturing Innovation Institute

According to Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who termed the move as ‘another step forward’.

The FlexTech Alliance aims to use high-end 3D printing technologies to develop “stretchable electronics” that could be embedded with sensors. Nine similar institutes have already been established, and six of them are led by the Pentagon. In total, the private consortium will consist of 162 companies, nonprofits, labs, universities, and will include a number of high profile tech companies like Apple, HP, Boeing and Motorola. The Department of Defense said the technologies promise dual applications in both military and consumer solutions.

The US government will be investing a sum of million over a period of five years.

The technology could find its way into soldiers’ uniforms as health monitors or placed in the cramped compartments of a ship or aircraft to measure structural integrity, the official said.

According to the department of Defense’s website, Mr. Carter is due to make a formal announcement at Moffett Federal Airfield (operated by NASA’s Ames Research Center).

Throughout his first journey in April, Carter launched a brand new program referred to as Protection Innovation Unit – Experimental aimed toward scouting out promising rising applied sciences and beefing up the Pentagon’s capacity to work with high-tech companies.

Carter also met on Friday with the Defence Science Board for a briefing on its latest study on how autonomous military drones and robots should be in the future. The group of organizations working on the project is being called the “FlexTech Alliance”, Reuters notes.

This new quarter-billion dollar investment in flexible hybrid manufacturing will further Silicon Valley’s position as the national and global leader in this budding field, bringing with it further investment, expertise, innovation, growth and jobs.

The entire initiative, dubbed The Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Hub, will be based out of San Jose, have a duration of five years, and will be graced with a budget in the $170 million range. President Barack Obama’s administration has built or planned eight additional research institutes – including one focused on further 3-D printing techniques – to strengthen military and private partnerships in a variety of manufacturing sectors.