Jeff has been involved in aerospace journalism since the mid 1990s. Prior to joining Aviation Week, Jeff served as managing editor of Launchspace magazine and the International Space Industry Report. He has been the editor and chief of Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily & Defense Report since 2007 and has been a regular contributor to Aviation Week magazine. He received his B.A. from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
DHS CONTRACTS: The Department of Homeland Security is about to award multiple contracts totaling up to $10 million to study alternatives to laser jammer countermeasures against shoulder-fired missile attacks on commercial aircraft. DHS is seeking either ground-based systems, airborne or a hybrid of the two. The department anticipates making an announcement "sometime soon" about the award of 18-month multiple contracts, a spokesman said.
The U.S. Marine Corps recently conducted its second round of testing with a surveillance system that manages multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or other sensors to provide reconnaissance information directly to dismounted troops. Developed by Northrop Grumman and sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the system is known as the Heterogeneous Urban RSTA (reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition) Team, or HURT.
Lockheed Martin is developing a half-scale variant of its Multifunction Utility/Logistics & Equipment (MULE) unmanned ground vehicle that it hopes to have in limited testing by the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in 2008. Known as the Squad Mission Support System (SMSS), the six-wheeled amphibious vehicle is based on the Land Tamer commercial chassis built by PFM Manufacturing Inc. of Montana. The SMSS is designed to carry one infantry squad's worth of equipment, or roughly 1,000 pounds of payload.
