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.
Lockheed Martin officials met with Army acquisition chief Claude Bolton Nov. 14 to present three options the company has come up with for salvaging the $8 billion Aerial Common Sensor program. The Army issued a 90-day stop-work order to Lockheed Martin in mid-September after learning that the company's chosen platform for ACS, the Embraer ERJ-145 business jet, was too small to carry the multiple intelligence-gathering payloads intended for it. The company was given 60 days to come up with alternatives.
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."
