Printer-friendly Version

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 19, 2005

Schumer, Clinton Announce Congressional Panel Backs $18.3 Million For Long Island Defense Projects

Schumer, Clinton: Defense Projects are Vitally Important for the New York Economy and National Security

Washington, DC -- U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced that the Joint House and Senate Conference Committee approved $18.3 million for military projects on Long Island, including $5 million for the Multi-Role Intermediate Support Craft for STIDD systems in Greenport; $3.5 million for F-16 Advanced Identification Friend or Foe Interrogator for BAE Systems in Greenlawn; $1.8 million for the B-1B Pneumatic Assisted Release Bomb Rack Upgrade for EDO corporation in Amityville; $1.8 million for the AN/SPQ-9B Shipboard Radar Transmitter Upgrade for Northrup Grumman in Melville; $1.5 million for the Common Acoustic Sensor Initiative for Advanced Acoustic Concepts in Hauppauge; $1 million for the Center for Cancer Prevention through Remote Biological Sensing at SUNY Stony Brook; $1.2 million for the Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic radiation for IEDS in Medford; $1 million for the SSN Navigation Enhancement Module at Lockheed Martin’s Mitchell Field facility and $1.5 million for Cold Spring Harbor for its Center for Women’s Cancer Genetics. The House has approved the bill. The bill must also be approved by the Senate before being sent to the President and signed into law.

"This is great news for Long Island," said Senator Schumer. "Additional funds will not only boost the area economy, but also put the Long Island 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 Long Island defense projects will vastly improve national security technology and will give our armed forces an even greater edge."

"Long Island has already proven to the world its leadership in cutting-edge defense research and technology," Senator Clinton said. "This new funding will help protect our troops, both at home and abroad, and is an important investment in our local companies and the communities they support."

$5 million of the federal funds will go to STIDD Systems, Inc in Greenport, a leader in commercial marine seating and maritime SOF mobility platforms. STIDD currently employs over 60 people and is a prime supplier of underwater submersibles and shock mitigating seats to the Department of Defense Special Operations Forces. The funding will be used to support USMC evaluation of variants of the Surface Planning Wet Submersible (SPWS) for use as a multi-role support craft (MRSIC) in support of underwater reconnaissance capability.

$3.5 million of the federal funds will go for the F-16 Advanced Identification Friend or Foe Interrogator at BAE’s facility in Greenlawn. The Advanced IFF (AIFF) provides the F-16 aircraft with the ability to identify individual aircraft, both within and beyond visual range. This is critical to timely identification and sorting of air traffic encountered by our F-16s operating in the Homeland Defense role.

$1.8 million of the federal funds benefit EDO Corporation for the B-1B Pneumatic Assisted Release (PAR) Bomb Rack Upgrade. This funding will be used for producing PAR Bomb racks, and completing flight testing requirements. The introduction of the PAR in the B-1B Fleet will drastically reduce maintenance requirements, use of consumable and hazardous explosive bomb release devices and increase weapons launch reliability.

$1.8 million in federal funds will go to Northrop Grumman Corporation (Melville) for AN/SPQ-9B Shipboard Radar Transmitter Upgrade. Funding will help complete the transmitter back-fit of all 20 existing AN/SPQ-9B shipboard radars. When all planned 122 radars are deployed, an estimated $4.5 million per year in repair costs will be avoided. Replacement of the existing Government Furnished Equipment transmitter with the improved transmitter will improve the AN/SPQ-9B’s detection of low flying missiles in heavy clutter and also improve the detection and tracking of small surface craft such as bog hammers, jet skis, inflatable craft and speed boats. This funding enables the AN/SPQ-9B to keep pop-up targets in track and facilitates 3D volumetric surveillance. It also accelerates the completion of the AN/SPQ-9B radar transmitter retrofit program, which provides the Navy with a more reliable (improves reliability by a factor of 50) and capable transmitter. The AN/SPQ-9B program office PEO IWS 2.0 and the OPNAV sponsor (N-76) strongly support the initiative. Fourteen transmitter upgrades are being procured using FY04/05 funding. Six upgrades remain and the federal funds will complete the final six upgrades.

$1.2 million in federal funds will benefit Advanced Energy Systems for development of a THz. Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic radiation in the frequency range from 0.1 to 30 THz, is the last unexplored frontier in imaging science and technology, whose application holds great promise for medical imaging, counter terrorism and homeland security, drug discovery and concealed explosive detection. Under certain conditions, THz beams, which are non-ionizing and hence generally safe to broadcast, can go through clothing and other common materials, and can recognize and identify biological and plastic materials through their spectral signatures. This gives this portion of the spectrum a unique niche, making it extremely well-suited for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and for plastic explosive detection. With the recent increasing peacekeeping role of the US military, protection against improvised explosive devices (IED) and land mines has assumed ever increasing importance. Given sufficient radiated THz power for wide field-of-view (FOV) detection through soil and other materials, a compact THz system could image concealed explosives and spectrally interrogate suspicious objects. $1.5 million in federal funds will benefit Advanced Acoustic Concepts’ Common Acoustic Sensor Initiative. Funding for this program will be utilized to improve the ability of the Transition Acoustic Intercept system currently in use aboard submarines and surface ships to better detect, classify and locate submarines.

$1.2 million in federal funds will benefit Lockheed Martin – Undersea Systems, Mitchell Field, for SSN Navigation Enhancement Module. The FY’06 funding will demonstrate the extended WSN-7 navigation performance achieved via implementation of gravity, bathymetry, and ground speed navigation technology. Confirmation of the more covert WSN-7 operational capabilities provided by these technologies would enable the SSN fleet to implement these navigation solutions in a timely manner to support future covert mission requirements (e.g. mine warfare and SOF operations) where access to GPS satellites might be denied. These same capabilities would be applicable to support anticipated requirements for SSGN operations and certain surface ship applications. $1 million in federal funds will go to SUNY Stony Brook Center for Cancer Prevention through Remote Biological Sensing. The funds will be used to develop a program for cancer detection and prevention through the use of implanted wireless sensors, complex computing, and nanotechnological drug delivery.

$1.5 million in federal funds will go to Cold Spring Harbor for its Center for Women’s Cancer Genetics. The Center for Woman's Cancer Genetics will identify major cancer genes in breast and ovarian cancers. Experiments will also work on drug treatments and help develop new medicines for cancer patients. The funding will go toward identifying genetic differences between cancer cells and normal cells in breast and ovarian cancer to better our understanding of how to detect and attack the cancer; improving methods for diagnosing cancer in patients so treatments can be tailored to the unique chemical makeup of the individual's disease; and aiding in the discovery of new treatment approaches that can target cancer cells while leaving normal cells untouched. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory will use the Center for Women's Cancer Genetics to build on its previous successes in cancer gene discovery. James D. Watson, CSHL President, was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962 for co-discovery of the DNA double helix. The Lab's other achievements include Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock's theory of transposable genetic elements, and Nobel Laureate Alfred D. Hershey's demonstration that DNA is the molecule of heredity.

###