Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota is marshalling forces for “a new era of opportunity” for the Red River Valley Research Corridor by hosting an “action summit” on March 22 at the University of North Dakota. The Air National Guard unit at Fargo and Grand Forks Air Force Base will be jointly operating Predator UAVs. Dorgan also hopes to get USAF to make the university a Center of Excellence for UAV education. He says he wants the summit to identify steps to take “to accelerate” the Predator deployment and identify potential economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.
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.
