Senator secures more than $93M for Nevada to strengthen military, make country safer

October 4, 2007

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada applauded the passage of the Defense Appropriations bill.  The Senate Majority Leader was able to help direct more than $93 million to Nevada for a variety of high-tech programs being developed by the military, UNR, Desert Research Institute, UNLV, and the state's private sector.
 
"This bill, which is so good for Nevada, is the product of Democrats and Republicans working together, said Reid.  "I'm pleased that Senator Ensign and I were able to work together to include funding for some of these vital Nevada projects."
 
In addition to funding the high-tech programs being developed, the bill supports a provision to allocate $150 million for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, a program that seeks to eradicate breast cancer by funding innovative, high-impact research through a partnership of scientists and consumers.  Reid also supported $50 million for medical research programs that will fund peer-reviewed research aimed to prevent, control, and cure disease.

The Defense Appropriations bill that passed last night includes $66.95 million for Northern Nevada and $26.4 million for Southern Nevada.
 
Below is a list of projects expected to receive funding.

SOUTHERN NEVADA - MILITARY

1.     $500,000 for 98^thRange Wing (Nellis Air Force Base) to increase efficiency of the Mobile Shear project at Nellis AFB to comply with environmental and DOD demilitarization regulations.

SOUTHERN NEVADA – UNIVERSITIES

2.     $1,300,000for University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Las Vegas) to construct the Antenna, Diagnostic, and Microwave Material Characterization Facilityat UNLV and train students in electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic interference issues.This facility will attract research and promote future research interactions and academic training in the communications field.  

3.     $1,200,000for University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Las Vegas)to establish the Research Visualization Facility (RVF) which will provide UNLV with unique hardware, software, essential infrastructure resources and professional advisory staff support.The RVF will be located in the new Science, Engineering, and Technology Building, which offers the university research community and visiting researchers the ability to visually analyze and compare results of advanced computer simulations.

SOUTHERN NEVADA – PRIVATE SECTOR                       

4.     $4,000,000 for Rocky Research (Boulder City) to perform research and development of the project technology for research and development into advanced environmental controls systems and unique components for environmental systems operating in harsh environments.This project will focus on developing energy efficient components while avoiding the cost of installing larger or additional air conditioning plants.The design parameters will be kept generic to allow for adaptation to other military needs in the Army and the Missile Defense Agency.

5.     $3,000,000for Rocky Research (Boulder City) to perform research and development of Heat Dissipation for Electronic Systems and Enclosures that will remove heat from military electronic systems and their enclosures.

6.     $1,000,000 for Rocky Research (Boulder City) to perform research and development on the Novel Lightweight Armor Material for Insensitive Munitions Protection of Tactical Missiles to validate the applicability of coordinated molecular-bond-based material (COMBAM) for use as a lightweight, potentially self-cooling armor material.

7.     $3,000,000 for American Pacific Corporation (Las Vegas) to conduct research and ongoing development of an energy efficient electrochemical field deployable system for potable water generation and/or water purification system.

8.     $1,800,000 for Blast Containment, Inc. (Henderson) to procure a truck deployed explosive containment vessel/lightweight, portable containers to dispose of terrorist bombs, design, test, and verify fabrication procedures and evaluate experimental data.With the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is in need of a lightweight, portable container that can be used to dispose of terrorist bombs onsite.This project will help produce such a container.

9.     $5,000,000 for Metals Affordability Initiative Association (Henderson) for the Metals Affordability Initiative.This program is focused on finding innovative ways to cut costs on manufacturing materials while maintaining the quality of material that the military needs. The money will be used to continue ongoing projects and start six new projects focused on fuel savings and sustainability.  

10.$3,600,000 for Noninvasive Medical Technologies, Inc. (Las Vegas) to integrate the Combat Casualty Management System components and increase capabilities to provide remote activation and communications link to tactical command center or from low flying aircrafts such as UAVs.This system minimizes the risk of exposure of those aircraft and crews to battlefield threats, provide the ability to bring supplies to medics where needed, increase signal strength for distance and non-line-of-sight detection, and locate and track multiple survivors within the battlefield.

11.$2,000,000for O2Diesel, Inc. (Nellis AFB) for the O2Diesel Air Quality Project site preparation, fuel acquisition, equipment, materials and labor, maintenance, testing and verification, and project management and oversight.The project would continue and expand research and testing on the capability of the fuel additive technology O2Diesel and next generation blend O2-B20Diesel to reduce particulate and other exhaust emissions from diesel powered vehicles in non-tactical applications at Nellis, AFB in Clark County, Nevada and at Nevada Air National Guard facilities.

NORTHERN NEVADA – MILITARY

12.$2,400,000 for Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (Fallon) to construct a building at the NSAWC, NAS Fallon, and a simulator to train Navy SEAL Joint Terminal Attack Controllers.

13.$5,800,000 for Nevada Army National Guard (Carson City) to allow the Nevada National Guard to capitalize on current imagery systems and capabilities which supports a multitude of other DOD Aerial Imagery systems.

14.$3,900,000 for Nevada Army National Guard (Carson City) to maintain current Nevada Army National Guard Counter drug Operations.

15.$3,700,000 for Army National Guard (Carson City) to procure M872A4 34T Flatbed trailers to support either training or Homeland security missions.

RURAL NORTHERN NEVADA – MILITARY

16.$1,200,000 for Day & Zimmerman (Hawthorne) to finish the propelling agent slurry gel program at Hawthorne Army Depot including the installation of equipment and prove-out of the processing line

17.$1,950,000 for Hawthorne Army Depot (Hawthorne) to construct the Northern Nevada Special Operations Training facility (two training structures - Live Fire Mobile Shoot House and Rappel Tower) to support joint training requirements conducted at HWAD.  

NORTHERN NEVADA - UNIVERSITIES

18.$700,000 for University of Nevada-Reno (Reno) to develop the UNR - Millimeter Wave-Based Fatigue Countermeasure Technology - a novel device based on millimeter that will serve as a skeletal muscle fatigue countermeasure for use in the battlefield.

19.$2,000 000 for Desert Research Institute (Reno) to develop methods and technologies for characterizing critical global military operating in natural environments (polar, tropic, temperate, and desert) for support of high-tempo military operations worldwide.

NORTHERN NEVADA – PRIVATE SECTOR

20.$3,000,000 for Eye-Com Corporation, Inc. (Reno) to enhance and expand the design, development, and application of the Biosensor, Communicator and Controller System with full integration into Drive and Flight Simulator Testing systems.Collaborative efforts are underway between Eye-Com Corporation (ECC), Washoe Sleep Disorders Center, University of Nevada-Reno, NASA, US Army, US Navy and Air Force to deliver a working system that has been comprehensively tested in multiple simulators for improving operator performance.              

21.$4,900,000 for OptiComp Corporation (Zephyr Cove)to focus on theMPOI for Battlespace Information Exchangesecond and final phase for the completion of the FY 05 initiated program; and to introduce an efficient optical interconnectivity solution that addresses all inter-platform communications needs of UAV platforms.

22.$5,000,000 for Sierra Nevada Corporation (Sparks) to develop and demonstrate a Multi-Sensor Detect, See, & Avoid (MS DSA)initiative for an 18 month concept demonstration program to evaluate the performance of the system.This project will satisfy the requirements and intent of collision avoidance in the Federal Aviation Regulations and the Convention on International Aviation's Rules of the Air.

23.$5,000,000 for Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (Reno) to develop a high-energy single generator operations lithium ion battery that will result in a long life, high cycle life, fast charge/discharge nano lithium battery.This project will contribute to significant reductions in fuel use and other energy savings, while simultaneously expanding the electrical power available on ships to meet the rapidly increasing load demands of new weapons, environmental, and communications systems.

24.$5,000,000 for Sierra Nevada Corporation (Sparks) to develop a pre-production capability of the Helicopter Autonomous Landing System (HALS)to transition to a pre-production configuration.HALS enables crews to operate safely in degraded visual environments increasing operational capability and survivability to combat forces.

25.$2,000,000 for Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (Reno) to conduct research and development of Multisignal Nanosensors for Detection of Improvised Explosive Devices.

26.$1,800,000 for Advanced Materials and Devices, Inc. (Reno)to design, develop and test a full-scale Controllable Shock Absorber for Advanced Submarines Weapon Shock Mitigation device for the safety of the US Navy nuclear submarines.

27.$1,800,000 for Nevada Nanotech Systems, Inc. (Reno)to develop a combined Container Pre-Screening Sensor Systemprototype of the chemical sensor system to be evaluated in laboratory and field tests.

28.$1,000,000 for Software and Engineering Associates (Carson City)to extend current gun tube computational fluid dynamic software to include analysis of the moving hardware required for the Lightweight Cannon Recoil Reduction and run the analysis on a massively parallel, high performance computer system to insure quick response to design analysis questions.

29.$6,000,000 for MFG/Ratech (Sparks)to procure composite support structures for theTactical Support Structures for AN/TPS-59 Radar system, the current joint tactical system for the Marine Corps System Command.

30.$3,000,000 for Advanced Materials and Devices, Inc. (Reno)to accelerateCISRT Enabling Materials Technologydevelopment that will address developmental risk mitigation that will lead to a tactically deployable system.

31.$800,000 for Scheelite Technologies LLC (Reno) to perform research and development for Advanced Fuel Cell Based Power System for Small UAV Applications to direct methanol fuel research.

32.$4,000,000 for OptiComp Corporation (Zephyr Cove)to help transform and improve defense communications and image and signal processing capabilities forMassively Parallel Optical Interconnects for MicroSatellite Applications.

33.$2,000,000 for 2Phase Technologies (Dayton) to complete theRapid Manufacturing and Repair of Composite Componentswhich will include fabrication of prototype parts using trap toolings and scale tooling for larger parts.