Thursday, July 20, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Kit Bond today announced that he secured $77 million in federal funds for key Missouri projects in the Senate Defense spending bill. Bond directed an additional $87 million in the bill to bring the Air National Guard advanced radar systems.

“These Missouri projects will provide our troops with the cutting-edge technology and equipment they need to complete their missions in a post-9/11 world,” said Bond, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “In addition to giving our warfighters the technological advantage, these programs will create high-tech, high-paying jobs for hardworking Missourians.”

As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Bond secured the federal funds in the fiscal year 2007 spending bill, which passed the full committee this afternoon. Before being signed into the law the bill must be passed by the full Senate and reconciled with the House of Representatives version.

Bond secured $77 million in funds for the following Missouri defense projects:

• $2.5 million for the Center for Geospatial Intelligence – Funds will be used by the Center, located at the University of Missouri-Columbia, to conduct research and development on geospatial intelligence important for national security, homeland defense, and military force transformation with the Department of Defense National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

• $5 million for Advanced Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies - Funds will be used for the program, located at the University of Missouri-Rolla, to research, develop, and transfer advanced tech.

• $3.5 million for the Center for Nano/Micro/Systems & Nanotechology -- Funds will be used by the Center, located at the University of Missouri-Columbia, to continue development of Nano-Micro Systems and Nanotechnology for civilian and defense needs, including future combat systems, detecting chemical/biological threats, monitoring food safety, guiding missiles, and synthesizing and characterizing energetic, explosive materials for use in small, lightweight warheads for armor and missile applications.

• $2 million for the University of Missouri-Rolla’s Steel Castings Program – Funds will be used for UMR’s High Performance Alloy Materials and Advanced manufacturing of Steel Castings for Improved Weapon System Reliability program that will provide steel casting, alloys and manufacturing technologies to meet requirements of the Army's objective Force.

• $1.5 million for the Parents as Teachers Heroes at Home Program – The funds will be used to expand and enhance services for the four Parents as Teachers program sites currently serving hundreds of families at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; and Fort Hood, Texas. In addition, new sites will be established at five additional Army installations including Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; Fort Lewis, Wash.; and Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

• $8 million for the Battery Technology Testing at KOKAM - Funds will be used by the company, located in Lee’s Summit, to support the development, qualification and testing of Superior Lithium Polymer Batteries (SLPB).

• $4 million for Brewer Science -- The funds will be used to by the company, located in Rolla, for the Innovative Processing Instrumentation for Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Microdevices Program.

• $6 million for Westar Aerospace & Defense – Funds will be used by the company, located in St. Charles, to complete the development and deployment of Mission Execution tools, both software and hardware, used in the planning and execution of Army aircraft missions (Bond secured these funds with Senator Jim Talent).

• $6 million for MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. -- Funds will be used by the company, located in O’Fallon, for the SOI Substrates for Next Generation Defense Electronics Program, for the development of a bonded wafer Silicon on Insulator (SOI) substrate manufacturing facility to provide the only domestic supplier of radiation hard material on which the next generation of defense electronics can be built.

• $7 million for Clean Earth Tech. -- Funds will be used by the company, located in St. Louis, for the HYPERSAR program, which will continue the integration of frequency agile Hyper-spectral Imaging (HSI) with state-of-the-art SAR in a single ultra compact imaging head operated by one computer.

• $3.5 million for Knowledge Sharing System -- Funds will be used by the company, located in Rolla, to develop a knowledge system and relational database to fully implement the Bayh-Dole and Stevenson-Wydler legislation’s' technology tracking requirements, from research and development through invention disclosure; patent award; knowledge transfer and technology utilization.

• $2 million for Sage Tech. – Funds will be used by the company, located in St. Louis, for the Defense Small Business Technology and Readiness Resource (DSTARR) program.

• $4 million for Avant -- Funds will be used by the company, located in Overland, for the Oral Anthrax/plague Vaccine program, to develop a single-dose oral vaccine that will protect personnel against anthrax and plague, two Category A bio-warfare threat agents (Bond secured these funds with Senator Jim Talent).

• $2 million for Southeast Missouri University’s Blast Resistant Program – Funds will be used by SEMO for the Blast-Resistant Barriers and Structural Design for Homeland Defense program (Bond secured these funds with Senator Jim Talent).

• $3 million for GE Energy Systems -- Funds will be used by the company, located in Kansas City, for the Chemical/Biological Agent Protection program (Bond secured these funds with Senator Jim Talent).

• $3 million for Engineering Software Research - Funds will be used by the company, located in St. Louis, for the Advanced Simulation Tools for Aircraft Structures Made of Composite Materials program, which will formulate, demonstrate and validate advanced procedures for the simulation of airframe components made of composite materials in order to substantially reduce the number of failures during system development and deployment while producing very efficient, low weight, airframes and dependable repair solutions for aging aircraft (Bond secured these funds with Senator Jim Talent).

• $1 million for Sentrus – Funds will be used by the company, located in Chesterfield, for the Wireless Tactical Remote Video/Sensor Surveillance System program, to provide a reliable, remote wireless tactical surveillance system for the United States Marine Corps and other deployed forces.

• $4 million for Nuvonyx Inc. -- Funds will be used by the company, located in Bridgeton, for the Advanced Weapons and laser diode development program to develop a method for increasing the brightness of a frequency stabilized laser source.

• $4 million for Crosslink – Funds will be used for the company, located in St. Louis, for the High Power Electrolytic Super-Capacitors Based on Conducting Polymers program.

• $3 million for Asynchrony Solutions -- Funds will be used by the company, located in St. Louis, for the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Improvement and Upgrade Project, to provide essential upgrades and improvements to the Navy's internet relay chat (IRC) communications systems.

• $1 million for John Deere - Funds will be used by the company, located in Springfield, for the Generator Engine Replacement program, which will supply the Armed Forces with cost effective re-manufactured engines for 30KW and 60KW generator sets.

• $1 million for Mid America Precision Products - Funds will be used by the company, located in Joplin, for the Thunder Radar POD for Air National Guard program, to give our War Fighters the unique capability to fight in bad weather conditions, in order to deprive our enemy from sanctuary 24/7.

Bond also directed $87 million in federal funds for the APG-63(V)3 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for the Air National Guard. The $87 million will begin the outfitting of the Air Guard F-15 fleet with the AESA, which was designed to improve the air-to-air capability of the F-15C fleet.

"The AESA is the most advanced tactical radar in the world and will vastly improve the combat capability of the Air National Guard F-15 fleet while improving the homeland security role as well," Bond said.

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