Pentagon Taps Silicon Valley Expertise In Flexible Electronics, Wearable Tech

The popularity of wearables like Fitbit and the Apple Watch has caught the attention of the military, and the Pentagon will explore how such new gadgets can help troops on the battlefield.

On Friday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced funding for the Flexible Hybrid Electronic Institute in San Jose, Calif., led by the FlexTech Alliance. It's a consortium of 162 companies, universities and nonprofits that includes Apple (AAPL), Applied Materials (AMAT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Boeing (BA), Lockheed Martin (LMT), United Technologies (UTX) and General Motors (GM).

The institute will be managed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and will receive $171 million in funding, with $75 million from the Defense Department. The center will focus on developing and improving flexible electronics, which can be used in uniforms to monitor health, as sensors in weapons, or on Navy warships to assess damage in real time.

"Flexible hybrid electronics have enormous potential for our defense mission," Carter said. "Now we can shape electronics to things after decades of doing it the other way around. We don't know all the applications this technology will make possible, and that's the remarkable thing about innovation.

The Pentagon hopes that working with Silicon Valley will help accelerate the military's technology development cycles as well as open up commercial opportunities for technologies developed at the institute.

Carter also said he is encouraging the Pentagon to think outside its "five-sided box" and wants to rebuild the bridge between the Pentagon and the tech community.

Silicon Valley and the Pentagon have been at odds recently, especially after Edward Snowden's leaks pertaining to government surveillance.

This is Carter's second trip to Silicon Valley in his role as defense chief. In April, he spoke at Stanford, outlining plans to work with the tech community to improve cybersecurity.

On Friday, he was also scheduled to attend a roundtable discussion with Silicon Valley leaders and then visit LinkedIn's (LNKD) headquarters to find out how the Pentagon can compete for new employees in tech.

As the Pentagon eyes their use for troops, Fitbit (FIT) and other wearables promise to make a splash with companies. For example, the overall market for health trackers could be helped by companies subsidizing employee purchases of such devices as part of corporate wellness programs, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.

Meanwhile, the Apple Watch offers a broader range of functions. In addition to allowing users to check their heart rate, users can dictate and read texts, sketch quick designs and make short phone calls.