Schumer, Clinton Announce Congressional Panel Backs $19.15 Million For Capital Region Defense Projects

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced that the Department of Defense Appropriations bill conference report filed late yesterday included $19.15 million for military projects in the Capital Region. The House and Senate must approve the bill before being sent to the President and signed into law. This is great news for the Capital Region, said Schumer. Additional funds will not only boost the area economy, but also put the Capital Region and New York State at the forefront of defense technology. As the men and women of our military bravely serve our country all over the world, the funding for these Capital Region defense projects will vastly improve national security technology and will give our armed forces an even greater edge. This is wonderful news for the Capital Region. This is cuttingedge defense technology being made locally, supporting our men and women in uniform and our national security. These are important investments in local companies and research institutions that will in turn help the economy as well. I look forward to their final approval by the Senate, Senator Clinton said.

Funding in the FY 2007 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill includes

Watervliet Arsenal Arsenal Support Program Initiative (ASPI) $3 million The purpose of the ASPI is to help maintain the viability of Army manufacturing arsenals and the unique capabilities of these arsenals in supporting national security interests. These funds will be used to help the arsenal secure new companies on site, bringing significant new investment to the Capital Region.

Watervliet Arsenal and Oto Melara, Inc. 76mm Super Rapid Medium Caliber Gun $1.8 million This will provide a funding stream for the Dahlgren WSESRB qualification of the 76mm Super Rapid Medium Caliber Gun so that it may be installed on Littoral Combat and other Navy and USCS ships. The 76 SR has already been selected for the Dgypt Fast Missile Craft. The barrels for the 76 SR will be manufactured by the Watervliet Arsenal with technical support from Benet Labs. Funding will help with WSESRB qualification of the 76 SR.

Benet Labs Advanced Technology Lightweight Armament SystemRarefaction Wave Gun (ATLASRaven) $1.1 million This funding will help Benet Labs to continue their work on the Advanced Technology Lightweight Armament SystemRarefaction Wave Gun (ATLASRaven) project. This system supports the goal of developing an ultralightweight combat vehicle that will significantly enhance the ability of all services to rapidly deploy to trouble spots worldwide. The ATLAS system will provide the enabling technologies for unprecedented reductions (50%) in the weight of large caliber high muzzle energy cannons. These weight reductions in the gun system will reduce vehicle weight and allow for air transportability.

Plug Power Fuel Cell Power for Continuity of Operations $3.9 million Continuous, distributed power in disperse locations is a significant component of any disaster plan. This program will develop and optimize fuel cell systems for these applications, and begin demonstration and evaluation in distributed sites.

Starfire Systems,Inc. Functionally Integrated Reactive Surfaces Technology (FIRST) Program $3 million The FIRST program will leverage nanotechnology for intelligent textile systems to protect the soldier against the presence of chemical and biological weapons and environmental stresses. To effect this development an integrated multidisciplinary research and development and technology transfer team has been created under the leadership of Starfire Systems, Inc. along with Syracuse University, Albany Nanotech and Southwest Research Institute (SWRI). This $ 350 million/yr, multidisciplinary, applied R&D organization is developing technologies that would be able to detect and automatically ameliorate the threat of any injury to the soldier on the battlefield as well as allow first responders to operate unimpeded or with enhanced capability for longer periods of time in the presence of biological, chemical, and fire threats. In FY' 05 and FY '06 Starfire received $1.8 million to develop patch prototypes that can sense chemical attack, monitor human heat stress, and control patchclothing permeability in response to the threat.

C9 Corporation DefectFree Si/C Semiconductors Using Superlattice Technology $1 million Enriched silicon material will be developed for use in making better electronic power semiconductor devices and cooler Integrated Circuits (IC) serving critical DOD missions. C9 Corporation intends to scale up the existing R&D production tool located at the Watervliet Arsenal site in New York. Production scaleup is required to produce useable quantities of high purity Si28 and other light isotopes. Because of its possible impact on semiconductors, Si28 may be considered for US strategic material classification.

Smart Machine Platform Initiative TechSolve and Benet Weapons Laboratory $1.35 million This program is establishing a smart machine testbed and initial identification of technologies and devices that will improve the capabilities of both new and legacy equipment. The objective or purpose of the project is the development and dissemination of first part correct technology for manufacturing systems. Benet Weapons Lab is an outstanding partner for developing and demonstrating these new capabilities. The challenges of the future are to develop lighter weapons with the same lethal force as todays heavy weapons. The newer generation of weapons will require a rapid prototyping capability to produce components for evaluation and test. This prototyping capability is enhanced through the Smart Machine System by virtue of the systems ability to manufacture the first part correctly and avoid the redundancy of a trial and error approach.

SUNY Albany The Secure Advanced Electronics Fabrication Facility (SAEFF) "National Secure Foundry" Initiative $2 million The Secure Advanced Electronics Fabrication Facility (SAEFF) Initiative supports the creation of a fullyintegrated advanced 300mm and 200mm wafer nanoelectronics R&D and pilotprototyping facility. This facility will serve the needs of DODs transformation to a lighter, more agile fighting force built on high efficiency, low loss power electronics integrating highspeed communication networks with the computational power necessary to process large amounts of data from multiple battlefield sources and sensors hardened for harsh environments. As such, SAEFF leverages combined investments in the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN) exceeding $3 billion from industry, government, and university to create a most effective consortium for enacting the U.S. nanoelectronics defense industry technology roadmap.

DayStar Technologies Inc. Advanced Photovoltaic Module Development for Lighter Than Air Vehicles $1 million DayStars enabling technology developed in part with this USAF funding provides and delivers the USAF Research Laboratory (AFRL) a standardized and proven effective method for manufacturing and deployment of Lighter Than Air Vehicle (LTAV) renewable energy systems. This AFRL Advanced Space Power project enables jointservice integration of LTAV platform development and establishes a crossservice resource for solar array technology. The Advanced Photovoltaic Module Development for Lighter Than Air Vehicles project puts New York State in the forefront as a premier supplier of this technology. Along with planned expansions, this project enables Daystar to create or sustain 133 hightechnology jobs by adding about 85 new employees to the present staff of 48 at DayStar.

New York Air National Guard Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar $1 million The 109th Airlift Group flies LC130 aircraft in support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Antarctica mission. One of the greatest dangers in supporting this mission is a crevasse hidden under the snow at a potential landing site. This system detects crevasses under snowdrifts. It will be optimized for snow runway assessment in the Antarctic region to assist in the selection of safe landing areas. It will provide the flight crews with a near realtime capability to explore and evaluate candidatelanding zones. One system is required, which can be utilized by all assigned aircraft.