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Defense Contractor Working to Bring Landmine Technology to U.S.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
UPPER MARLBORO - Congressman Steny Hoyer today joined Native American Industrial Distributors (NAID) President and Founder, John Meyers for a tour of the company and to announce $1 million in federal funds Congressman Hoyer secured in the Defense Appropriations bill which was passed by the Congress in July.
NAID is an American Indian owned and operated information technology, security, management, and training firm located in Upper Marlboro. The company employs 51 Marylanders and generates annual revenue of nearly $5 million.
"The prospect of having this important mine clearing technology, which has already been used successfully by the United Nations in Bosnia, added to the inventory of the United States Army is very exciting," said Congressman Hoyer.
"I want to thank John for his contributions to our community. Native American Industrial Distributors has become a true small-business success story. NAID celebrated its 21st anniversary just two days ago, and over the past two decades the company has become a leading provider of information technology, security and management services to public and private clients.
"One need look no further than NAID's list of government clients - which ranges from the Executive Office of the President to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to the Drug Enforcement Agency - to understand the quality of service provided by NAID.
"The funding included in the defense bill for these projects demonstrates a recognition by the Congress of the substantial contributions of NAID to our nation's defense and will ensure that this company continues to provide a growing number of jobs in Prince George's County and strongly supports our state's economy," added Hoyer.
The funding secured by Congressman Hoyer will support the SCANJACK Mine Clearing System technology being brought to the U.S. by NAID. This system consists of a mine clearing vehicle that is able to destroy all know landmines with great accuracy in a variety of terrain conditions. This system is the only one in the world to utilize advanced "dual flail" technology resulting in greatly enhanced reliability and safety, while clearing approximately two football field-sized areas per day, making it one of the fastest mine clearance machines in the world.
This system is well tested in real world applications. It was tested and certified for mechanical mine clearance in Croatia in 1999 and now has a track record of more than 9,000 operating hours with less than 2% downtime. Since its introduction in the Former Yugoslavia, the SCANJACK system has successfully cleared over 9 million square meters without accidents. After rigorous quality assurance conducted by the United Nations and others, the SCANJACK machine is not known to have ever missed a landmine in the field.
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