Pentagon Gives Millions to Consortium for Flexible Electronics Development

A consortium of tech companies, including Apple and Boeing, will receive $75 million from the US Pentagon to conduct research into flexible electronics. For example, those devices should appear on soldiers’ equipment and on the fuselages of airplanes.

The money will go towards the development of flexible and ‘hybrid’ electronics. In time, the research should result in, among other things, thin electronic devices and sensors that can be applied to various surfaces. This should include the fuselage of an airplane, the equipment of soldiers, but also other electronics.

The US Department of Defense is allocating $75 million over five years for the project. The 163 institutions of the FlexTech Alliance are contributing $96 million themselves. This brings the total amount for the research to $171 million. Converted that comes down to almost 153 million euros.

The Ministry of Defense would invest in the San Jose-based consortium for a reason. According to Secretary Ash Carter, that is necessary to ‘think outside our five-sided box’ – the Pentagon – and therefore invest in institutions in the United States. 96 companies, 11 laboratories, 42 universities and 14 regional institutions are members of the FlexTech Alliance.