Air Force announcement yields multimillion dollar contracts

Nov. 4, 2004
November 4, 2004, Kirtland Air Force Base, NM--Based on a single announcement published a year ago, 21 companies, educational institutions and other organizations were awarded contracts here valued at more than $22.2 million.

November 4, 2004, Kirtland Air Force Base, NM--Based on a single announcement published a year ago, 21 companies, educational institutions and other organizations were awarded contracts here valued at more than $22.2 million.

The 21 organizations selected were from more than 220 responses to the announcement, which asked them to outline projects they could undertake in developing high-energy laser technology for the Department of Defense. Money and oversight for this work would come from DoD's High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office, located in Albuquerque, NM.

Air Force contracting officials noted that they and the Joint Technology Office were pleased with the overwhelming response they received to the announcement. They expect the resulting one- and two-year contracts will yield technological advances in the way laser light is aimed and controlled in order to destroy a target, in developing better optics needed for managing beams of laser energy, and in laser manufacturing processes. Other contracts involve improvements on various kinds of lasers, including chemical, solid-state, fiber, free electron, and x-ray lasers.

Contracts were awarded to three nearby Albuquerque companies: Boeing SVS Inc., A-Tech Corp. Applied Technologies Associates, and Intellite Inc. for $1 million, $2.1 million, and $.8 million, respectively, and to one company as far away as Great Britain, QinetiQ Inc., for $1.4 million. Two educational institutions also received contracts: Northern Illinois University in DeKalb for $.6 million and the University of Illinois at Urbana for $.2 million.

The remaining 15 organizations are spread throughout the United States. They include Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL) for $2 million; Ball Aerospace & Technologies (Boulder, CO) for $.5 million; Boeing-Laser & Electro Optical Systems (Canoga Park, CA) for $.5 million; Coherent Technologies (Louisville, CO) for $1.8 million; Directed Energy Solutions (Colorado Springs, CO) for $.6 million; HRL Laboratories (Malibu, CA) for $.9 million; Lockheed Martin Space Systems (Sunnyvale, CA) for $1.6 million; Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, NM) for $.6 million; Northrop Grumman Space Technology (Charlotte, NC) for $.5 million; Northrop Grumman (Baltimore, MD) for $1.9 million; Onyx Optics (Dublin, CA) for $1.9 million; Polymicro Technologies (Phoenix, AZ) for $.1 million; Princeton Lightwave (Dublin, CA) for $1.1 million; Science Applications International (Longmont, CO) for $1.6 million; and Science Applications International (McLean, VA) for $.5 million.

The Joint Technology Office was established in 2000 to manage a comprehensive approach to the development of high-energy laser science and technology for Department of Defense organizations. Operating under an annual budget of approximately $60 million, the organization is currently sponsoring 80 programs across industry, academia and government agencies.

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