A Better Sleeping Bag for $1 Million

[unhappycamper]

A Better Sleeping Bag for $1 Million
April 07, 2008
Knight Ridder

Flagstaff Cabinet Company is not the only local company receiving financial and administrative support from the government.

Steve Miller, president of S.D. Miller and Associates, a local research firm, said his company is waiting to be awarded a two-year, $1 million contract from the Department of Defense to design new sleeping bags for the U.S. Marine Corps.

"Every three to four months, the government releases a list of programs or things it needs," Miller said. "In this case, it was sleeping bags. Marines in the field are saying they'd rather leave their bags behind. Our goal is to make them 30 to 50 percent lighter and 20 percent warmer."

Miller said the only reason his company was awarded the contract was because of help from TechLink, a Department of Defense-sponsored company that guides small businesses to Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards. Ray Friesenhahn, TechLink's SBIR & technology transition manager, said the firm helps companies who are often overlooked.

"We like to act as technology scouts," Friesenhahn said. "We want to help a region that hasn't always been successful and try to guide them in the process to make connections with other companies or, for more rural places, meet with the Department of Defense, who they usually can't."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/marine-corps-news/a-better-sleeping-bag-for-1-million.html