Military contractor BAE Systems has been awarded a modification worth a minimum of $122.3 million for the transition effort for two armed robotic vehicle (ARV) versions for the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), increasing the contract from $189 million to $311.3 million. The ARV, which is to be about the size of a large pickup truck, is the largest unmanned ground vehicle in the Army's FCS program. It will be deployable either two at a time on C-130 airplanes or individually with CH-47 helicopters. The ARV is intended to provide reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and assault firepower to battlefield commanders; BAE is scheduled to field the first prototypes in 2010. . . . More than 40 representatives attended Cedip Infrared Systems' annual global distributors meeting at its Croissy-Beaubourg, France, headquarters. A program of technical presentations, practical workshops and forums were attended by participants from the US, Australia, Israel, South Africa, Russia, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Poland and from Cedip's subsidiaries in the UK and Germany. Cedip offers a line of high-performance infrared imaging cameras and systems incorporating technology in optics, infrared focal plane array detectors, electronic hardware and software. . . . Jeffrey P. Sercel, founder president of JP Sercel Associates (JPSA) and Michael von Dadelszen, PhD, coauthored a chapter in the newly published Laser Beam Shaping Applications, (eds. Fred M. Dickey, Scott C. Holswade and David Shealy, CRC Press, Aug. 4, 2005; Chapter 3, "Practical UV Excimer Laser Image System Illuminators," pp. 113-155). Sercel has developed excimer lasers as well as Alexandrite, Nd:Glass, ND:YAG, chemically pumped Iodine and CO2 TEA lasers. He pioneered the use of 157-nm laser technology at JPSA and is recognized as an authority on industrial laser technology. von Dadelszen is a laser scientist at JPSA. . . . The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Laser Institute of America (LIA) have formed an alliance to provide access to training to help protect worker safety and health, particularly by reducing and preventing exposure to laser beam and nonbeam hazards in industrial and medical workplaces. In addition to providing training and education programs for OSHA staff and for employers and employees that use lasers in the workplace, OSHA and LIA will develop laser-related training courses and share information on the effects of lasers on the eyes and skin, laser control measures and laser safety program administration. The alliance will also produce materials on laser hazards in the workplace and will develop methods to communicate the information to employees and employers in the medical, industrial, military, research and development, and optical fiber communications industries.