Washington DC - US Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton announced today that Congress had given final approval for $29.5 million for defense projects in Western New York. Amherst Systems will receive $12.5 million for the production of Joint Threat Emitters (JTEs) and $17 million will go to Sierra Research for the development of airborne manned/unmanned system technology and threat emitters. The funding, which the Senators requested, was included in the Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations bill and was approved by the House and Senate this week. The bill now awaits the President's signature.

"This money do will great things for Buffalo's economy while supporting major advances that will improve the lives of all Americans," said Senator Schumer. "The Joint Threat Emitters will help ensure that our Air Force pilots get the best training available."

"I am pleased to announce this funding today. Funding these critical programs will provide our military personnel with upgraded resources while giving a boost to the economic vitality of Western New York. At this critical time in our nation's history, it is important that we recognize the companies and workers supporting our men and women in uniform by making sure the best military in the world has the best equipment in the world. We can all take pride in the fact that Amherst Systems and Sierra Research are developing innovative new technology right here in upstate New York and playing a key role in our national defense," said Senator Clinton, the first New York Senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The JTEs to be manufactured by Amherst Systems will play an integral role in the training of American fighter pilots by accurately simulating threats they are likely to face while in battle. Currently, pilots train against outdated threat systems that potentially jeopardize the quality of instruction they receive and their ability to perform while under fire. The funding assist with the creation of up to 8 JTEs that will substantially improve pilots' survivability by improving their training.

The Air National Guard has an urgent need to provide range reprogrammable threat capability for conducting high fidelity training for ANG, AF Reserve, and USAF war fighters, enabling them to train against today's highly lethal enemy air defenses. A mobile, reprogrammable threat emitter will provide an advanced, mobile, rapidly programmable EW threat simulator to generate all know ground based EW threats by employing broad-band frequency techniques. This capability, including the highly lethal "double digit" threats, adds an essential element to ANG combat training ranges. The funding announced today will allow the Alpena and Savannah CRTCs to provide realistic threats for joint ANG/USAF/USN training, thus enabling pilots to get needed training-time-on-range rather than being deployed to distant western ranges. This reprogrammable threat system effectively simulates enemy Integrated Defensive Networks providing the best training for the lowest cost, enabling more training in Joint Operations scenarios. Procurement under this request will take advantage of cost savings by combining with current production runs of other Navy and Air Force procurements, and allow multi-year buys without losing training fidelity during transition to the CRTCs.

AMUST - The U.S. Army's Airborne Manned/Unmanned System Technology (AMUST) will provide field commanders with the ability to track and manage multiple assets, including unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles, and to access sensor information in "real time." Under current tracking technology, Army command personnel experience poor situational awareness and communications and find it difficult to observe field maneuvers with accuracy. Recent lessons learned in Afghanistan have raised the importance of enhanced situational awareness and mobile command and control systems. As a result, the Army accelerated by one year an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) to test this necessary capability. Unfortunately, the situational awareness, real time, data link, and multiple unmanned air vehicle components will not be available. The best alternative is to fund a modified USAF network system to support this requirement.

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