(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Senator Patty Murray has secured $15 million for the SeaLion stealth boat being built in Vancouver for the U.S. Navy. Oregon Ironworks is slated to receive the funding included in the Senate’s Department of Defense spending bill to continue the development, testing and evaluation of this state-of-the-art vessel.

Murray, a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, earmarked the funding in the FY2004 Department of Defense Appropriations bill, which passed the full Senate last night by a vote of 95-0.

The SeaLion is a multi-mission high speed, low signature boat that will be capable of supporting a variety of missions like covert delivery and extraction of a Navy SEAL team to the beach, mine identification and deactivation, clandestine surveillance of shore side and seaborne activity, reconnaissance for planned mission, and target interdiction performed by the Navy in the course of an operation.

Sen. Murray has secured funding for the SeaLion in each of the past three years.

“The SeaLion project is a win-win for our military and for the economy of Southwest Washington,” said Murray. “It will be a critical asset for the U.S. Navy and it means good jobs for Southwest Washington.”