Lockheed Martin has agreed to provide the University of North Dakota’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Science with access to an unmanned aerial vehicle. Bruce Smith, dean of the school, says Lockheed would make an operational UAV available for test flights as early as this spring. This will fit in nicely with the school’s new UAV center of excellence, not to mention the UAV mission that awaits Grand Forks Air Force Base. The Odegard School also has applied to the state for a $3.4 million research grant that officials say it would use to expand unmanned research at the school “to promote private sector UAV-industry job growth in Grand Forks.”
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
