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Gadgets and gizmos are not the only things beset by the U.S. Defense Department’s continued battle with shrinking budget dollars.

The U.S. Defense Department will award $167 million in research funding to academic institutions as part of the department’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). During the next five years, 24 awards will be issued through the program to support multidisciplinary basic research, which will be conducted by teams of investigators that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline.

Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Va.

The BionicKangaroo mimics the unique way a kangaroo moves. Like its natural model, it can recover the energy when jumping, store it and efficiently use it for the next jump. The kangaroobot intelligently combines pneumatic and electrical drive technology to produce a highly dynamic system.

Exelis Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind. (W15P7T-14-D-0012); General Dynamics C4 Systems Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz.

Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nev.

Alion Science and Technology, McLean, Va., has been awarded a $17.7 million task order to provide the Defense Department with engineering and science and

Lockheed Martin, Liverpool, N.Y., was awarded a $9,085,206 modification (P00092) to contract W15P7T-06-C-T004 for interim contractor services required t

The U.S. Navy has successfully demonstrated the Autonomous Aerial Cargo and Utility System (AACUS), which allows current, full-size helicopters to be remotely controlled by a tablet device. Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, USN, chief of naval research, recently revealed that two young Marines at Quantico, Virginia, were able to land a full-size helicopter autonomously on an unprepared landing site with just one touch on a mini-tablet.