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DoD rewarded innovative thinking at a Nov. 8 award ceremony here recognizing science and technology projects that benefit both the military and civilian industry.
The Army's National Automotive Center, Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, took top honors for working with Continental Teves to develop an electronically controlled active braking system for medium duty vehicles. The system can be used on Humvees and commercial trucks to improve safety and performance.
Brad McNett, TACOM's program manager, and Mark A. Mushenski, project engineer and team leader, received the Dual Use Science and Technology Achievement Award and a $5,000 cash award.
DoD oversees the Dual Use Science and Technology Program within the Army, Navy and Air Force. The program links the military and civilian research and development communities, allowing the services to leverage scarce research funds by forming partnerships with private industry and universities.
DoD's fiscal 2001 budget includes about $9 billion for basic, applied and advanced science and technology research. About $60 million of that is allocated for the dual use technology program, a pilot program set up in 1997 to develop partnerships with private industry, according to Dan Petonito, program manager.
The overall goal, he noted, is to set up a process within the services so that when funding for the pilot program ends in fiscal 2002, cooperative research projects will be an accepted way of doing business.
So far, he said, DoD has initiated 283 dual use projects, about 45 more have been selected, but not yet awarded. DoD set up the awards program this year to provide an incentive to encourage people to initiate projects and work with industry to develop needed technologies.
Delores M. Etter, deputy undersecretary of defense for science and technology, presented program achievement awards at the start of the Commercial Technology for the Warfighter conference in McLean, Va. She told about 250 technology specialists that revolutionary capabilities give America's warfighters the winning edge.
"Our mission is to be sure that we are developing affordable and superior technology for the warfighter," she said.
Affordability must be a key consideration in the development process, she noted. "If things aren't affordable, we just aren't going to be able to purchase enough of them … to make a difference."
The TACOM project involved developing and integrating the MK50 active braking system with low speed traction control on a M1097A2 HMMWV. The project aimed to advance the state- of-the-art technology for commercial vehicles and include the needs of the HMMWV. The goal, project officials said, was to provide a commercially available set of components common to both commercial and military vehicles.
Two runners-up also received trophies and cash awards of $2,500: They were:
DoD officials selected the three winning projects from a total of twelve finalists nominated for the awards. The other nine are:
Army:
Navy:
Air Force:
Story by Linda D. Kozaryn, American Forces Press Service
| Date Taken: | 11.08.2000 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2025 22:58 |
| Story ID: | 525823 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 8 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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