DARPA to make better binoculars

July 12, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: DARPA, Northrop Grumman Corp., development program 

DARPA invested with Northrop-Grumman to develop smart binoculars. See this short note here. The advanced ones will increase the Field of View (FOV), allowing soldiers and sailors to see more of the area. This should provide quicker detection of possible threats. One would think with the fact that these types of optical systems being in use for centuries there would have been earlier attempts to fix this.

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Boeing sort of pushing CIA brief on EADS bribery

April 15, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, Federal Budget Process, GAO, Northrop Grumman Corp., Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, development program, logistics 

According to The Hill Boeing is using its lobbyists to push Members of Congress to receive a briefing from the CIA on “foreign companies” using questionable means in their attempts to win contracts. See the article here. Of note the only two Congressman to talk on the record about this were Tiahart from Kansas, a vocal opponent of the deal and a former Boeing employee and Dicks from Washington. Both have been very supportive of Boeing in their attempt to throw out the KC-45 award to Northrop Grumman and EADS. Obviously Northrop Grumman is upset that Boeing would be stooping to this. The protest result will be announced in early June by the GAO. Congress cannot do anything but de-fund the program, something they are hesitant to do as it is important to the modernization of the Air Force.

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