OU’s vision is to become a national leader in areas vital to our national security and Oklahoma’s prosperity. As the public flagship university of our state, OU has an important responsibility and opportunity to improve the prosperity and security of our state, nation, and world through a strategic focus on the broader aerospace, defense and national security context. This strategic vertical outlines three strategic foci within ADNS in which OU is uniquely positioned to excel based on its existing strengths and grow to levels of national prominence. The three areas of focus, also referred to as sub-verticals, are: (1) DoD Sustainment and Operations; (2) Acceleration and Insertion of Advanced Technologies; and (3) International Security Policy. By focusing in these three initiatives, OU will position itself as a national leader in areas vital to our national security and Oklahoma’s prosperity. In so doing, it will open channels for new resources to come into OU and the state, in addition to training the workforce of the future.
Oklahoma is home to several major military installations that provide critical functions and services to the broader armed services branches that keep our nation secure. In particular, the nation’s Air Force Sustainment Center and the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex are headquartered at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. These centers and associated defense contractors in our state have growing and unmet needs in the areas of engineering, applied research, advanced manufacturing, training and workforce development. OU is committed to growing our support for these critical needs within the state and nation.
In today’s world of global and exponential technology development, the United States faces new economic and military challenges from peer and near peer adversaries and must move efficiently to remain in the lead in the global technology race. OU is well positioned, both from a geographical and a capability standpoint, to develop and deploy advanced technologies such as quantum information systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced manufacturing, and others to help counter the ever-growing threat from adversaries.
OU is home to the nation’s premier academic Advanced Radar Research Center. The Advanced Radar Research Center has a long history developing advanced technologies and maturing them into fielded prototype radar systems. OU will continue to leverage the ARRC’s expertise and pioneering work to develop new radar capabilities for the Navy and the Army, and to pursue new research and development opportunities in the design and integration of these systems and technologies toward achieving the goal of modernizing the radio frequency sensing and communications sub-systems on several of the platforms related to the Air Force Sustainment mission.
In addition, by focusing and aligning early on with the “Industries of the Future” outlined by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (link here), which will set guidelines for priority areas of research and funding by agencies such as the Department of Defense, OU will have an opportunity to be a leader in these critical national and economic security areas.
International security policy covers a broad array of crucial issues, from arms control to cyber policy and many others. For example, the emergence of advanced technologies such as AI and autonomy are creating new ethical and moral questions that directly affect the future of war and security. Our goal is to bring together OU’s multidisciplinary strengths in areas such as AI, cybersecurity policy and ethics to drive research integration across the Norman and Tulsa campuses to establish OU as a national and global thinker and leader in international security policy and the implications for global stability of emerging technologies such as cyber, AI and quantum. By supporting development of policy solutions to the grand global security challenges related to technological innovation, the university will provide value to the U.S. military, various federal agencies and the entire world.
