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Senate Panel Approves $218 Million for Defense Projects in Hawaii(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 -- The office of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, issued the following news release: Defense projects in Hawaii including upgrades to the electrical grid at Hickam Air Force Base, refurbishments at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, school repairs, tactical weapon systems development and the enhancement of space situational awareness capabilities will receive $218 million after the FY2011 Defense Appropriations Bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Chairman Daniel K. Inouye announced today. The spending measure passed the full committee by a vote of 18-12 with Chairman Inouye voting in favor of the package. The measure will now go before the full Senate for a vote. "The military's presence in Hawaii is vital to our national security and critical to the state's economic health. It is one of our most important duties as elected officials to ensure that our men and women in uniform are adequately equipped to defend themselves and our great nation," said Senator Inouye. "By providing for these essential needs, our local communities will benefit from the research, development, construction and job creation that will take place as a result of these investments." "The defense projects approved by the Appropriations Committee will strengthen our military and help Hawaii's economy," said Senator Akaka. Here are the projects receiving funding: OAHU/STATEWIDE AKAMAI/Hawaii Federal Health Care Network $25 million Supports applied research, development and deployment of telehealth and biotechnology to improve access and the quality of care to active duty military families and impacted communities. Akamai continues on a transition path toward competitive grants for Hawaii companies in support of DOD health requirements. Hawaii Technology Development Venture $12 million Provides competitively awarded grants to companies developing advanced technologies in support of Department of Defense requirements. Center of Excellence for Research in Ocean Sciences (CEROS) $10 million The appropriation provides competitively awarded grants for innovative concept and technology development in ocean and marine research for the Department of Defense. Bow Lifting Body Ship Research $9 million Develops, builds, and tests a 160-foot Bow Lifting Body vessel to support advanced bow lifting body ship technology transition to the Navy. Electrical Distribution Upgrade at Joint Base Hickam $8.5 million This funding continues and completes the repair of Hickam's base-wide electrical distribution system. This project will provide reliable backup power to support the Joint Air Operations Center, the Hawaii Air National Guard, and strategic life missions. Pearl Harbor Navy Shipyard $5.8 million Funding will procure a pure water delivery trailer, a pure water polishing trailer, and two dive boats for the Pearl Harbor Navy Shipyard. In addition, funding will develop a comprehensive plan for the future Shipyard suite of industrial corporate applications since the current suite requires a technology refresh. Eagle Vision for the Hawaii Air National Guard $5.5 million Funding will upgrade the Hawaii National Guard's Eagle Vision system to increase its access to commercial satellite imagery. Joint Venture Education Program $5.5 million Funding will go toward education programs, school repair and technology innovation to support military families. Army Conservation and Ecosystem Management $5 million Funds support the U. S. Army efforts to be good stewards of their lands through tested conservation practices, monitoring for ordnance, fire control management, and community outreach. Of the amount, $1.75 million will be set aside for initiatives related to military munitions, particularly along the Leeward Coast. Intelligent Decision Exploration $5 million This project provides a planning tool to enhance interoperability with coalition partners, develops 3-D visualization of the battle space, map interface, and improved sensor fidelity to improve operations of unmanned vehicles, and creates visualization of network traffic to improve computer network defense. Virtual Secure Enclave $5 million Supports a Joint Concept Technology Demonstration for computer network defense that uses the virtual secure enclave concept to provide network defense-in-depth protection for the U.S. Pacific Command. Vigilance Assistance in Screening, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance $4.5 million Funds will be used to develop a system to augment intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and security systems where humans are required to make decisions. Airborne High Gain UHF ESA $4 million This project will support the development of the next generation of airborne surveillance and battle management command and control systems to build upon the current state-of-the-art radars and antennas using electronically steered antenna technology. Reconnaissance and Data Exploitation (REX) System $4 million Funding will be used to improve intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) tools by leveraging existing technology into a transitional program for immediate deployment opportunities and warfighter impact. Hawaii Undersea Military Munitions Assessment $3 million This project assesses the location, condition, and potential risk to human populations and the environment of discarded military munitions, including chemical munitions, disposed off of Oahu between 1933 and 1946. Hawaii Event Response Command Center $3 million Enhances multi-level coordination and enables expanded service and capabilities for timely and effective event response and provides relevant, real-time situational information to all levels of command from the Hawaii National Guard to Hawaii State Civil Defense, and to civilian responders in the field. Hawaii National Guard Counterdrug $3 million Funding for this ongoing program will be used to enhance drug interdiction activities at Hawaii's ports of entry, support anti-drug programs targeting youths, and eradicate marijuana and crystal meth labs. Wind-Powered Autonomous Unmanned Surface Vehicle (AUSV) $3 million Funding will be used to continue and accelerate the development of a new-technology wind-powered AUSV as a cost-effective, high-endurance reconnaissance and surveillance system. Emergency Communications System $3 million Provides assured interoperable emergency communications capabilities for emergency responders in the event of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or cyber incidents. NetCentric Intelligence Node-Pacific $3 million Focuses on the rapid collection, organization and fusion of a wide variety of data sources to provide tactical understanding and actionable intelligence for the Department of Defense in areas such as maritime domain awareness, counter terrorism, counter piracy, and cyber threats. Pacific Island UXO Detection and Munition Study $3 million Develops detection technologies that can rapidly narrow the search and detection of unexploded ordnance to reduce the amount of time to delineate areas for remediation. This project will integrate airborne and ground techniques to identify UXO for remediation with a focus on detecting UXO in wet, highly weathered, and densely forested environments. Toxic Chemicals and Hazardous Material Improvement and $3 million Remediation Funds a pilot project to provide empirical data necessary for DOD to assess the efficiency and cost effectiveness of a new polymer based hydrogel that has shown significant capabilities in cleaning up a wide range of hazardous materials to a degree not possible with current methods. Immersive Group Simulation Virtual Training System $2.5 million for Hawaii Army National Guard Funding will provide additional training opportunities for the Hawaii Army National Guard by using virtual reality to supplement live training exercises. 4-D Data Fusion Visualization $2 million This funding continues development of capability to process, fuse and rapidly visualize very large amounts of spatial and temporal data in an immersive environment to facilitate situational awareness and understanding of the battlespace. Managing and Extending DoD Asset Lifecycles $2 million Funding for this program will be used to develop technologies to prevent and mitigate corrosion of DoD infrastructure and equipment. Virtual Onboard Analyst for Multi-Sensor Mine Detection $1.5 million This program develops a self-learning, adaptive, multi-sensor, knowledge-based fusion decision-aid capability and creates a means to fuse knowledge-based information with multi-sensor data through a virtual onboard analyst that replicates the capabilities and flexibility of an experienced mine countermeasures analyst. Cosite Interference Mitigation Suite $1.5 million Provides a response to a Joint Urgent Operational Needs Statement submitted by U.S. Central Command, to simultaneously operate the Counter IED Electronic Warfare (CREW) system and Blue Force radios in theater. Funding will mature digitally tunable RF absorptive filter technology and complete test and evaluation and independent validation and verification in preparation to install these components on fielded systems. Covert Sensing and Tagging System $1 million The funding develops a covert, low-cost and expendable unattended sensor system for special operations forces for use in any tactical environment. Internet-based Installation Environmental Management $1 million Information System The funding will help resolve many of the Marine Corps' challenges associated with ever-increasing needs to reduce energy use, prevent pollution, and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. MAUI PanSTARRS $9 million Funding will continue development of a telescope system that combines relatively small mirrors with very large digital cameras to observe the entire sky several times each month in order to discover and characterize Earth-approaching objects and enhance space situational awareness capabilities. The Maui Space Surveillance System, the University of Hawaii Institute of Astronomy, and the Maui High Performance Computing Center are cooperating on this initiative. LIDAR Applications for Vehicles with Analysis $6.5 million Funding will continue to enhance the space situational awareness capabilities of the Maui Space Surveillance Site and provide state-of-the-art intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities to the warfighter. It will also provide the capability for immediate, real-time kill assessment of a missile intercept and enhance space situational awareness utilizing hyper-dimensional digital snapshots. High Accuracy Network Determination System-Intelligent $5 million Optical Network for Space Situational Awareness (HANDS-IONS) Funding continues work on the HANDS-IONS project, which uses a relatively low-cost, innovative network of telescopes to provide greater accuracy in tracking space data for the Air Force to enhance its space situational awareness mission Real-time Optical Surveillance Applications $5 million This program provides pathfinder research, technologies, and demonstrations for the next generation of space situational awareness electro-optical assets. FLASH Hyper-dimensional Imaging for Near Space $4 million Surveillance and Ballistic Missile Defense This project continues development of a capability to enhance the immediate, real time threat assessment of a missile intercept and significantly improve space situational awareness. Hawaii Advanced Laboratory for Information Integration (HALI'I) $3.7 million The HALI'I project will enable intelligence information across disparate classification domains and network interfaces to be exchanged by the intelligence community. HALI'I will use the U.S. Pacific Command theater of operations to develop and validate technologies associated with information fusion, dissemination, and protection. Wave Energy Conversion for Persistent Surveillance and $2.5 million Communications The Navy has developed a compact wave energy harvesting device based on a rotary motor design that produces 10-100 Watts of power, which provides enabling technology for persistent ISR and communications in a maritime environment. This funding will further refine the engineering, integrate the platform with sensors and conduct long term sea trials in order to transition the technology. KAUAI Hawaii Surveillance Initiative $19 million Develops target identification techniques, advanced radar processing, radar transmitters, and open architecture environment for maritime domain awareness. Strategic Materials $5 million Funding supports efforts to advance technology to chemically grow extremely pure silicon carbide for critical defense applications. This material is ideally suited to a range of optical applications, including space surveillance and seeker optics, fast steering mirrors, and other dual-use items. Multiple-Target-Tracking Optical Sensor-Array Technology (MOST) $5 million MOST technology will benefit test and evaluation of missile defense systems by providing enhanced data on missile intercepts. Pacific Region Interoperability Test and Evaluation $5 million Capability This project creates a developmental and operational testing environment in the Pacific that is interoperable with other Defense Department test facilities. Chemical Vapor Composite Silicon Carbide and Silicon Carbide $4 million Corrugated Mirror Processes for the SM-3Block IIA Telescope Seeker telescopes are currently made from Beryllium, a hazardous and toxic metal. This project will ultimately replace the Beryllium with Silicon Carbide (SiC), which has no handling or environmental restrictions. The Chemical Vapor Composite SiC has superior optical properties, it is proven to be radiation hard, stiff and thermally stable. COMPETITIVE FUNDING INITIATIVES The Committee also supports a wide variety of competitively-awarded funding increases in areas that are of interest to the military and numerous organizations and companies based in Hawaii. These include: * $75 million for test and training range upgrades * $120 million for alternative energy research * $50 million for clean-up of Formerly Used Defense Sites * $25 million for the readiness and environmental protection initiative * $10 million for the STARBASE program to help disadvantaged students * $10 million for directed energy development and test * $40 million for operationally responsive space launch initiatives TNS JF78JF-100918-3009886 EditorFurigay (c) 2010 Targeted News Service |