Online Sponsor: April 01, 2003
New Special Projects Fund Helps Turn By GAIL KAUFMAN, DEFENSE NEWS MEDIA GROUP
Ron Sega, director of Defense Research and Engineering for the Department of Defense, said a new fund for quick-reaction special projects is helping to make that a reality. In 2003, lawmakers provided Sega’s office with about $25 million, and the 2004 defense budget request includes $75 million for such programs, he told service and industry representatives here April 1 for the Defense News Media Group conference — Strike Warfare & Precision Attack: Compressing the ‘Flash-to-Bang Cycle. Sega said the fund would be used for three categories of technologies: ** New ideas and unsolicited proposals from contractors that could meet the warfighting needs of combatant commanders; ** Development projects that could be transferred to operational use despite limited maturity; ** Programs that are further along, but have some subsystems that could be updated with the latest technology. Last year, for example, the Pentagon was able to deploy the thermobaric weapon to destroy targets hidden in rock caves in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. By using an existing development program called the BLU-109 — a 2,000- pound bomb developed by Lockheed Martin to defeat an enemy’s most critical and hardened targets — and replacing the warhead with a penetrating bunker buster, the U.S. military was able to “tap into technologies for near-term needs,” he said. Return to news coverage |
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Maj. Gen. John L "Jack" Hudson |
