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.
Rival systems for protecting commercial airliners from shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles are gearing up for evaluations by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in the coming weeks. The Eglin tests will complete Phase II of DHS' effort to counter the threat of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) to commercial airliners, which began in January 2004. The systems use lasers to blind incoming missiles.
Citing the likelihood of shrinking Pentagon budgets in the coming years, Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.) recommended a series of steps for overhauling the troubled military space acquisition process during a speech in Washington Nov. 10. "We're going to see budgets tighten in the next three years, and we have got to find a way to work around that," Everett said during a luncheon sponsored by the Washington Space Business Roundtable. "Congress is losing confidence in the acquisition system."
Congressional appropriators have denied the $34 million fiscal 2006 budget request for NASA's Centennial Challenges prize program in their recent conference bill, instructing the program to spend the leftover money allocated to it for FY '05 instead. According to Program Manager Brant Sponberg, Centennial Challenges has $10 million remaining to be spent in its FY '05 budget, but can't access that money until the final passage of the FY '06 NASA authorization bill, which has not yet gone to conference.
