The tiny tech lab that put AI on a spyplane has another secret project
By: Valerie Insinna  
WASHINGTON — It started as a dare.
When Will Roper, then the Air Force’s top acquisition official, visited Beale Air Force Base in California last fall, he issued a challenge to the U-2 Federal Laboratory, a five-person organization founded in October 2019. The team was established to create advanced technologies for the venerable Lockheed Martin U-2 spyplane, and Roper wanted to push the team further.
“He walked into the laboratory and held his finger out and pointed directly at me,†recalled Maj. Ray Tierney, the U-2 pilot who founded and now leads the lab. “He said, ‘Ray, I got a challenge.’ We didn’t even say hello.â€
Roper, a string theorist turned reluctant government bureaucrat who was known for his disruptive style and seemingly endless references to science-fiction, wanted the team to update the U-2′s software during a flight. It was a feat the U.S. military had never accomplished, but to Tierney’s exasperation, Roper wanted only to know how long it would take for the lab to pull off.
The answer, it turns out, was two days and 22 hours.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/02/11/the-tiny-tech-lab-that-put-ai-on-a-spyplane-has-another-secret-project/
