The Air Force has awarded Boeing $35 million and Rockwell Collins $42 million for work over the next two years to upgrade the data-collection capability, safety features, and additional infrastructure at USAF, Army, and Navy test ranges, the Department of Defense announced May 1. Both companies will perform risk-reduction activities and mature technologies under their respective Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System contracts. CRIIS is envisioned to replace the 1980s-era Advanced Range Data System in use today. The goal is to make the services’ ranges interoperable and increase each range’s ability to evaluate accurately and safely complex new weapon systems, such as cruise missiles, mini bombs, and high-powered microwave and laser systems, that have increasingly greater ranges and broader effects. The Air Force aims to field the first increment of CRIIS around 2015.
The Pentagon agency charged with building and operating U.S. spy satellites recently declassified some details about a Cold War-era surveillance program called Jumpseat—a revelation it says sheds light on the importance of satellite imaging technology and how it has advanced in the decades since.
