The defense spending bill will provide $447.6 billion for military personnel, operations and maintenance, and equipment procurement. Ross also applauded the passage of an additional $70 billion in emergency spending to pay for repairing and replacing Army and Marine Corps equipment worn out by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Investments like these in our national defense infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities are critical to our national security,” U.S. Representative Mike Ross said. “Arkansas's defense facilities play a key role in keeping our men and women in uniform safe throughout the world, and I'm proud to fight each year to secure funds for the defense contractors and military installations that employ hundreds of hard-working Arkansans in the Fourth Congressional District.”

Ross announced $1.042 billion that benefits the Fourth District projects through the FY 2007 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill:

Pine Bluff

M18 Smoke Grenade – $2 million was secured to replenish training and operational stocks of the M18 Grenade produced at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.  The M18 Grenade is a small hand-held grenade, approximately the size of a soup can, that emits a dense colored smoke and is used by all military services for signaling, marking, or screening operations.  The M18 Smoke Grenade has been in high demand as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

M291 Skin Decontamination Kits (SDK) – $2 million was secured for production of M291 Skin Decontamination Kits (SDK) at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.  M291 SDKs are the only skin decontamination kits fielded by the military and have been used by US Armed Forces since the early 1990’s, having been deployed in Desert Storm and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The portable kit decontaminates skin from known nerve and blister agent threats without harm and is FDA approved. 

Highland Park, East Camden

Standard Missile Rocket Motor Modernization – $4 million was secured for Aerojet to modernize the rocket motors on about half of the missiles that would otherwise expire by 2010 due to age.  As part of its ongoing Standard Missile Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), the Navy qualified a rocket motor regrain process that re-uses the major subcomponents thereby providing a new rocket motor at approximately 50% of the cost and in half the time required for a new motor.

Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Deployment – $50 million was secured for Raytheon to increase the manufacturing rate from two to four SM-3 systems per month.  These systems, when integrated on U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers, provide the capability to detect, track, intercept, and destroy short to intermediate range ballistic missiles.

Hydra-70 70 mm (2.75 inch) Rockets – $136.670 million was protected for the Hydra-70 rocket system used by Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Special Operations helicopters and Navy, Marine and Air Force jet aircraft. The system is an effective area suppression weapon which has seen use most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Hydra-70 family of rockets includes seven different tactical warheads that provide combat overmatch and ensure a near-term war fighting readiness posture for U.S. aviation assets including the Army’s AH-64 Apache, the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, and the Marine Corps’ AH-1 Cobra. Camden’s portion of the Hydra Rocket production supports 243 jobs.

Tomahawk – $354.565 million was protected for special tooling and testing equipment to increase production capacity of the Tomahawk missile.  Camden’s portion of the Tomahawk Missile assembly supports approximately 60 jobs.

PAC-3 Missiles – $489.067 million was protected to fund the Defense Department’s priority anti-tactical missile interceptor program, the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC).  It is designed to counter all threats armed with weapons of mass destruction.  Camden’s portion of the PAC-3 Missile production supports approximately 460 jobs.

Texarkana

Lone Star Load, Assemble and Pack (LAP) Modernization – $2.9 million was secured for Joint Munitions Command to continue the evaluation and implementation of initiatives in the FY05 LAP Modernization program.  Such funding will assure the completion of the Modernization program and conversion to a flexible, more cost effective production process.

Hot Springs

Vanadium Technology Partnership - $1.35 million was secured for the Vanadium Technology Program, which has made immense progress in finding beneficial commercial solutions for defense applications.  Currently, Vanadium is used in virtually every structural application in the military and continued funding for the program will advance practical applications.  Benefits to the Army include lighter, mobile systems, which improve airlift capability and decrease logistical support.  Stratcor, Inc. in Hot Springs manufactures vanadium products.

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