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.
With NASA dictating most elements of the design for its Crew Exploration Vehicle, the crux of the industry competition to build the vehicle will be the price tag and production efficiencies proposed by each team, according to Doug Young, Northrop Grumman's CEV program manager.
The Defense Department's Joint IED Task Force is shifting its original focus on short-term projects to protect troops from improvised explosive devices to more long-term work. The task force's original charter only allowed it to look at "very short-duration concepts and ideas and technologies, so we're only picking the very low-hanging fruit," according to Col. Brian Green, the task force's acting technology director. "Now this summer, that's changed."
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking congressional approval to make permanent the prize authority under which it offered the Grand Challenge program, according to Director Tony Tether. The authorization is slated to expire in 2008. Although Tether expects there will be similar Grand Challenge-type programs mounted at DARPA before the decade is out, there is nothing on the immediate horizon.
