(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) helped pass the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations bill which includes $50 million in federal defense work for Washington state companies through the U.S. Senate. Senator Murray is a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. The bill was passed in the Senate by a voice vote. It will now be reconciled with the House version of the bill before being sent to the President."
"This funding will create jobs here at home and help save lives abroad," said Senator Murray. "Washington state companies are researching, testing, and producing today what will keep America’s service members safe in the future. We all want to bring our troops home safely, and the innovative equipment this bill funds is a critical step toward that goal."
Projects Funded in Washington State
Advanced Boat Lifts for Navy Small Boats Program
Sunstream Corporation, Kent
$2 million
High-speed hydraulic boat lifts meet the Navy’s need for rapid response and extending the lifespan of its small boats. These advanced lifts provide easy boat access, reduce maintenance costs, and improve safety when docking and boarding. This program will fund lifts for the Navy that will be configured to support multiple missions at several Navy command stations. This funding will support more than 50 jobs in Kent and support suppliers throughout Washington state.
Fixed Base Weather Observation Systems
Coastal Environmental Systems, Seattle
$4 million
This funding for new fixed-base weather stations will allow the Air Force to replace obsolete instrumentation. These observation systems are necessary to assist pilots and air crews to safely take-off and land in all weather conditions. In addition to providing pilots with accurate weather, wind speed, and visibility information, these stations report data to a larger weather system which provides forecasts worldwide for combat and peacekeeping operations. This program employs 40 people at Coastal Environmental Systems in Seattle, WA.
Online Technology Training Program at Ft. Lewis
Giant Campus, Inc., Seattle
$2 million
This funding will continue a successful academic curriculum for all ages in computer basics, digital photography, graphic design, and web design. The program will provide a flexible and multidisciplinary curriculum tailored for in-class study, after-school programs, evening community courses, or more intensive trainings during vacations or breaks. The goal of these interactive technology courses is to help improve the quality of life for service members and their families and thereby improve service recruitment and retention rates. Additionally, this program has the added benefit of equipping service members with technology skills that are useful in both military and civilian settings.
U.S. Army Extended Cold Weather Clothing System Hand Protection
Outdoor Research, Seattle
$2 million
This funding will provide soldiers with gloves that allow them to conduct operations in all battlefield conditions, including cold weather environments, while helping protect them from burn damage. Made of extreme heat-resistant fabric, this glove protects soldiers’ hands from the heat of explosive blasts or burning fuel. These gloves also improve both comfort and tactility to help soldiers conduct missions without sacrificing their safety or the quality of their work. Funding for the Extended Cold Weather Clothing System will support jobs at Seattle-based Outdoor Research, a leading provider of American-manufactured gloves, hats and gaiters for the U.S. Military.
Research Institute Center for Control of Inflammation and Tissue Repair (CITR)
Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle
$2 million
Roadside bombs and other explosive and projectile weaponry in today’s combat zones can inflict severe injuries and massive tissue loss that challenge available means of treating wounds. The emerging field of tissue engineering offers promising new treatments for large scale repair and replacement of injured areas of the body. This funding will move research into improved wound healing treatments toward clinical implementation. This initiative will support 24 medical researchers and their assistants as well as support research and testing in Washington state.
Integrator Advanced Concepts Development
Insitu, Inc., Bingen
$4 million
The Integrator Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is a low-altitude, long endurance aircraft designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. The Integrator features modular payload bay that can be adapted to a variety of missions. The Integrator builds on the successful ScanEagle UAS technology and shares the same launch, recovery, and control station. Two Integrator prototypes are currently flying, and this funding will support further development and testing.
Advanced Lightweight Armor for Vehicles
Amtech Corporation, Wapato
$2 million
This funding addresses the military’s need for high-performance vehicle armor that is light, affordable, repairable, and capable of being molded into any shape for wheeled tactical vehicles. Adding armor to Humvees and future tactical wheeled vehicles protects service members from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other attacks, but increased weight from armor protection reduces vehicle performance and maintainability. This project will focus on meeting requirements for higher levels of armor protection with lightweight composite armor. The benefits of this armor solution include a one-piece conformal design, further weight reduction through localized protection levels, increased structural strength for rollover protection, and improved shielding from electromagnetic interference.
Biological and Chemical Warfare Online Repository of Technical Holdings System (BACWORTH2)
Heritage University/Battelle, Toppenish
$1 million
Chemical and biological warfare (CBW) analysts need readily available, complete and current technical data to assess threats to our country and its citizens. The Biological and Chemical Warfare Online Repository of Technical Holdings System (BACWORTH) is the most usable and efficient medium for delivering that information. The BACWORTH2 program will vastly improve the speed and quality of information retrieval by providing a single, highly-focused online collection of classified and unclassified technical reports, scientific studies, and reference documents for chemical and biological warfare. Funding for this program will create up to 25 new jobs in Yakima County and further enhance Heritage University’s ability to train and equip students and residents with high-tech skills.
CB 90 Riverine Command Boat
SAFE Boats International, Port Orchard
$6 million
The CB 90 Riverine Command Boat is a fast boat that will operate in areas near shore and along inland waterways as part of the Navy’s newly-formed Riverine Force. The CB 90 Riverine Command Boat is a proven platform that supports several configurations and can carry a variety of weapons. The armor-protected CB 90 can also deploy troops or remove injured personnel from combat zones. This funding for two CB 90 boats will enhance the Navy’s “brown water” capability and support more than 20 new jobs in Washington State.
Enhanced Directed Armor RPG Vehicle Protection System
Armor Systems International, Vancouver
$1 million
The rocket propelled grenade (RPG) is one of the most common and damaging weapons used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Enhanced Directed Armor RPG Vehicle Protection System will help develop a system to protect military personnel and vehicles from RPG attacks and shaped-charged explosives. This solution for protecting vehicles is based on a non-lethal net projection that utilizes a net that deploys and engages the incoming RPG prior to impact, thereby reducing or eliminating damage. This funding for phase II of the project will support the engineering, modeling, field testing, and integration analysis of the Enhanced Directed Armor defense system.
Expeditionary Swimmer Defense System
Sound and Sea Technologies, Edmonds
$2 million
Protecting Navy ships is the Navy’s highest Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection priority. This program will develop a system for protecting critical infrastructure and military assets from surprise maritime attacks by detecting and defending against surface and underwater threats. The system seeks to incorporate electro-optical cables and physical barriers to provide Navy ships robust protection from maritime terrorist attacks in a manner compatible with environmental considerations for fisheries and marine mammals. This funding will help complete a final design and prototype testing.
High Energy Matter Space Propulsion Initiative
WSU, Pullman
$1 million
The High Energy Matter Space Propulsion Initiative will continue basic and applied research in space propulsion systems. This research program studies the process of harnessing the power created by positron energy conversion. Positrons would be the fuel of choice for space propulsion in extremely remote locations where transporting the weight of other fuels is impractical and solar energy is unavailable. Researchers from Washington State University’s Center for Materials Research will explore this revolutionary idea for space propulsion in conjunction with the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
Intelligraf Data Distribution Training & Maintenance Integration
Dimension 4, Bremerton
$6 million
The Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Keyport, WA will use this enhancement to increase readiness by shortening the time needed for shipboard maintenance. This program improves shipboard maintenance and training by updating technical documentation repositories with a graphical interface and intelligent graphics that allow sailors to quickly troubleshoot problems and access information for mission-critical applications. This program will update the Navy’s Data Assembly Inference Engine used by sailors to retrieve ship configuration data and tailor maintenance tasks to specific crewmembers. This program will support 80-90 employees, a third of which will be new hires in Washington State for Dimension4, Inc.
Lightweight Multi-purpose Laser
nLight, Vancouver
$3 million
The Army has identified an urgent need for laser warning lights for use at military checkpoints. When approached by unidentified persons, service members in Iraq and Afghanistan have few non-lethal options. This program will help develop a new class of eye-safe military lasers that will help reduce civilian deaths and friendly fire incidents in combat situations.
High-Pressure/Microwave MRE Processing
Avure Technologies, Kent and WSU, Pullman
$2 million
The Army and a consortium of industry and academic researchers are developing new food preservation technologies to improve the quality and variety of combat food rations. High-pressure processing (HPP) improves the freshness, shelf life, and taste of food to deployed forces worldwide. This technology can also be used to provide high-quality, non-refrigerated food for disaster relief and other emergencies. These funds will help the consortium move this program from the design stage to the demonstration and manufacturing phase.
The Component Object Model (COM) Attitude Control System Simulation/Trainer
Andrews Space, Seattle
$4 million
Current military satellite operator training programs developed in the 1960s and 1970s are out dated and costly to run. The Component Object Model (COM) Attitude Control System Simulation/Trainer will help the Air Force integrate state-of-the-art software and hardware into Air Force Training Facilities to better train military satellite operators at a lower cost. Satellite system operators will be able to train with the new simulator in real time on laptop computers at their desks. The simulator—which can be modified for past, present or future spacecraft configurations—will also be integrated into the Air Force’s Satellite Ground Control Facilities.
Real-Time Weight and Balance Measurement System for C-130s
Crane Aerospace, Lynnwood
$4 million
The Real-Time Weight and Balance Measurement System will improve aircraft safety and dispatch speed by accurately measuring crucial aircraft weight and center of gravity information for takeoff and landing. Currently, weight and center of gravity are estimated based on average troop passenger weight and other survey data. This funding provides C-130 cargo aircraft with an onboard weights and balance system that provides more accurate information to pilots by temporarily converting the aircraft landing gear into weighing scales.
Shipboard Visitor Control Center
Mobilisa, Port Townsend
$2 million
This project will increase security for Naval vessels at port. It uses a state-of-the-art access control system that can read drivers licenses, passports, and military ID cards for visitors on docked Naval ships. This electronic system will be able to validate ID credentials, check for fake IDs, and screen visitors against selected watch lists. Further research and development will create web-based entry authorization lists and a graphical representation for quickly checking how many sailors are ashore and visitors are aboard the ship.
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