Today, the US Senate approved Senator Herb Kohl's request to direct $9.6 million in federal funds to Wisconsin defense projects in the FY10 Defense Appropriations Bill. Senator Kohl is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and has identified these projects as priorities for funding.   

"This funding will give our troops the most up to date equipment and technology they need to function at the highest level," Kohl said. "Everything from increased battery power to the laser range-finder will help ensure the safety of our soldiers."  

As part of the appropriations legislation, Kohl received approval for:  

$3.2 Million for Advanced High Energy Density Surveillance Power Module at Rayovac Battery Group The Navy needs a high energy density and low weight battery to power many of its surveillance devices.  This project will develop a battery that offers twice the service power of the Navy's current lithium batteries.  It will also provide Special Operations forces with lower weight, higher power batteries for their communications devices.  

$2.4 Million for Eye Safe Laser Range Finder at Alfalight The Department of Defense (DOD) and US Army, are seeking compact, cost-effective, rugged and reliable "eye-safe" laser range-finder. These devices help our troops identify and designate enemy targets very accurately. Currently available laser range-finders are expensive, large and consume a lot of power due to inefficiency related with poor optical-to-optical power conversion efficiency of the "eye-safe" laser architecture in use. Alfalight has a unique high efficiency and high brightness laser based on its curved-grating surface-emitting distributed feedback (SE-DFB) architecture that allows design of very compact, efficient and low-cost "eye-safe" range-finder.  

$4 Million for Magnetic Refrigeration Technology for Naval Applications at Astronautics The Navy expects that its next generation of ships will need a 700% increase in cooling capacity due to greater electrification and introduction of multiple high-powered weapons systems. Conventional cooling technology, based on vapor compression systems with limited efficiency, will be too heavy and large for this emerging naval requirement.  Magnetic refrigeration (MR) is a cooling technology that has the high-energy efficiency, low weight, compact size, and lower maintenance that the Navy requires for their next generation of ships. Unlike conventional cooling technologies, MR is environmentally friendly, using a solid refrigerant and water-based heat transfer fluids. Preliminary estimates indicate that MR technology achieves a 50% reduction in weight and volume and a 35% improvement in efficiency when compared to currently deployed naval chillers.  

The funding measure was passed by the Senate, and now goes to the President for final approval.  

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