The University of North Carolina at Charlotte will receive $133,853 in funding from the Department of the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory under a Project Grant award from the Air Force Defense Research Sciences Program (CFDA 12.800). The grant will support research from May 2021 to April 2024 to tailor partially coherent orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams for atmospheric propagation. The Air Force Defense Research Sciences Program aims to maintain technological superiority in scientific areas relevant to Air Force needs and prevent technological surprise through a strong research infrastructure. This award will further those goals by exploring how to manipulate OAM beam properties to optimize atmospheric transmission, a key capability for defense applications that require optical wireless communication through varied environmental conditions.