The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a special group of people who work for the United States Air Force. Their main job is to figure out new and better ways to help the Air Force do a good job of protecting the country.
Think of it like this - sometimes, when you play with your toys or do your homework, you find a better or easier way to do things. Maybe instead of stacking blocks one by one, you figure out that you can stack two blocks together and then stack more on top. This makes things faster and easier for you.
The AFRL does the same thing, but for the Air Force! They work on ways to make planes fly faster or farther, or keep them hidden from enemies. They also try to make weapons that are more accurate and powerful, or figure out how to use computers and robots to help the pilots do their jobs.
The people who work at the AFRL are really smart and use a lot of math and science to figure out these things. They do experiments and tests to make sure that their ideas work before they tell the Air Force to use them.
So, basically, the Air Force Research Laboratory is like a big group of really smart people who work together to come up with new and better ways for the Air Force to protect the country!