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.
The U.S. Navy is exploring the use of commercial software for managing aviation spare parts inventory that some estimate could save several hundred million dollars annually. The Navy hopes that commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software can improve its Readiness Based Sparing (RBS) process, which identifies the best mix of spare parts required to keep a military system at its desired readiness level. The service has a roughly $10 billion annual aircraft spares inventory, so even a small percentage reduction could add up to significant savings.
NASA is studying the possibility of building an interim variant of its Ares rocket that could allow the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to take a test swing around the moon and back prior to a lunar-landing attempt, akin to the Apollo 8 mission of 1968. Although such a flight is not currently part of NASA's plans, if the agency decides it is worth pursuing it could probably be mounted by 2015, NASA officials estimate. That is five years prior to the White House's deadline for returning astronauts to the moon.
The U.S. Air Force's fledgling Cyberspace Command is pursuing a "pretty aggressive" startup schedule to influence the Pentagon's fiscal 2010-2015 program objective memorandum (POM) process and achieve full operational capability by 2009, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, commander of Eighth Air Force.
