Inhofe Votes For Passage Of Defense Appropriations Bill

Press Release

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, early Saturday morning voted for final passage of the Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 3326).

"This legislation provides critical funding for the Department of Defense to include a 3.4 percent pay raise for our service men and women which is more than the President requested," Inhofe said. "It also increases benefits for service members and their families, funds 10 additional C-17 aircraft and provides $128.6 billion for the war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also extends key provisions of the PATRIOT Act which has been used to apprehend terrorists and even contains essential year-end provisions such as providing continued funding for our nation's highway funding through the end of February 2010."

Despite his support, Inhofe added his disagreements with the bill saying, "I do have disagreements and significant concerns with this bill such as providing even less funds than the President requested, cancelling the Army's ground vehicle portion of its Future Combat System, terminating the F-22 program, and reducing the capability and size of our missile defense system. Unfortunately, this bill reflects the beginning of the Obama administration's long-term overall cuts to our military, shifting wartime costs into the military's base budget and decreasing overall funding for the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations where our troops are deployed around the world. In addition, the House-Senate conference watered down language related to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to allow the transfer of detainees to the U.S. for trial."

OKLAHOMA ITEMS

Legislative Language included in the bill:

Ammunition Facilities and Equipment (effects McAlester Army Ammunition Plant -- MCAAP)

Directs the Secretary of the Army to provide a report to the congressional defense committees prior to executing any plans to consolidate government-owned ammunition production assets to a private ammunition manufacturer.

Oklahoma Investments: $33.94M

$1.14M, Global Safety Labs (Tulsa) - Fire Suppression System:

Funding will used to improve fire suppression systems in existing combat vehicles. Current fire suppression system has proven to be ineffective, increasing risk to the warfighter. Program will retrofit existing combat vehicles to provide enhanced fire suppression, rapidly extinguishing all classes of fire seen in ground vehicles, including combustible metals like magnesium and lithium.

$5.0M, GWACS Defense, Inc (Tulsa) - Ground Warfare Acoustical Combat System (GWACS) of Netted Sensors:

Funds will be used to accelerate the development and fielding of GWACS technology, which is urgently needed for small arms detection, force protection, and situational awareness at all command levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. The system is designed to provide U.S. combat troops with immediate battlefield situational awareness. GWACS are multi-sensor systems that can detect, locate, discriminate and give precision targeting data of hostile fire to Blue forces in a net-centric environment.

$1.2M, L-3 Westwood (Tulsa) - High Density Power Conversion:

Funds will be executed under an Office of Naval Research program to provide power conversion equipment as a proof of concept for an advanced high density power generator program. The power conversion equipment will be used for future naval ship power distribution architectures.

$2.4M, Advanced Composites Group (Tulsa) - Lightweight Composite Structure for Aerospace Vehicles:

Funding will be used to develop, improve, test and qualify domestically produced, advanced composite materials for military aerospace vehicles. Composite materials currently used by the military are only available from foreign suppliers. This program will provide the military second-source qualification of composite materials, providing military suppliers access to lower cost domestic sources of composite materials.

$1.6M, OK Air National Guard (Oklahoma City) - WMD Multi-Sensor Response and Infrastructure Project System:

Funding will enhance the Oklahoma National Guard's ability to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks. The program will provide Weapons of Mass Destruction detect and analysis capability and a fully integrated and functional suite of equipment. This suite of equipment will include interoperable wireless communications, a suite of Acoustic, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (ACBRN-E) sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Cyber for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) sensors.

$2.4M, Oklahoma State University (Stillwater)- Aging Systems Sustainment and Enabling Technologies (ASSET):

The ASSET program augments military readiness by expanding the Department of Defense (DoD) manufacturing base production of problem-parts for aging aircraft and weapons systems. ASSET has a successful 14-year record of support for DoD, documenting savings that range from 15%-85% through rapid-response manufacturing, product redesign/reverse engineering and applied research.. Funding will be used to continue the ASSET program and enhance its mission performance effectiveness.

$3.0M, Oklahoma State University (Stillwater) - Technology Applications for Security Enhancement (TASE):

Funding for this initiative will be used to by Center for the Mitigation of Evolving Threats (CMET) to assist in the development of an effective National Bio-security Plan. The program will enhance overall national chemical and biological threat preparedness through the development of a plan that addresses prevention, preparedness, response and attribution in quarantine and defense. It will include an integrated multi-stage framework, early detection systems, mediation of CB threat impacts, and forensic investigation for criminal prosecution.

$2.4M, Oklahoma State University (Stillwater) - University Multi-Spectral Laboratories - UAV/UAS Test Facility:

Funding will be used to complete UAS Test Center begun in 2009. The purpose of the UAS Test Center is to help solve issues of UAS use related public safety, certifications, subsystems testing, and pilot training. This facility provides unique opportunity to conduct UAS flight testing while remaining within Fort Sill restricted airspace where UAS flights are exempt from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations.

$3.0M, ICx Nomadics (Stillwater) - Fido Explosives Detector:

FIDO explosive detector was initially developed under DARPA funding for the detection of landmines. Its successful use in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the detection of IEDs and persons involved in the manufacturing and placement of IEDs has led the Army to select FIDO for expedited program fielding. Funding will be used to increase our military's capability to identify and interdict both explosive devices and those who manufacture these devices by detecting explosive vapors and residues. Based on current Army planning, there is a requirement for the completion of the additional enhanced capability of detecting C-4 and homemade explosives (peroxides/Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil). This will provide the capability to detect most of the explosives being used against Coalition Forces.

$0.8M, Veracity Technology Solutions (Midwest City) - Advanced Autonomous Robotic Inspections for Aging Aircraft:

Funding will advance 30 year old non-destructive inspection technologies into robotic technologies that can reduce maintenance downtime, reduce equipment disassembly, and increase inspection sensitivity. This project will enable the Air Force to develop an advanced, fully autonomous robotic inspection vehicle capable of carrying a multitude of inspection sensors to include, but not limited to, ultrasonic and eddy current probes. This program will enable the Air Force to reduce cost, improved throughput and efficiency, and enhanced readiness during depot maintenance.

$5.0M, Stanley Associates (Fort Sill) - Call for Fire Trainer II / Joint Fires and Effects Trainer System:

Finalizes the development of the state-of-the-art virtual fire support training system at Fort Sill enabling Soldiers, Marines and Airmen from the United States and our allies to train in a realistic combat environment that simulates the terrain and scenarios they will encounter during deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

$2.8M, Amethyst Research (Ardmore) - Infrared Materials:

Funds Infrared Materials Laboratories research and development of infra-red devices for Department of Defense (DoD) applications. This program will eliminate complete DoD dependency on a single, foreign source for a key component of infrared sensors, reduce DoD's cost to acquire and deploy high-performance infrared focal plane arrays, and improve the ability of DoD assets to distinguish, track, and target well-camouflaged enemy assets in highly cluttered environments. DoD estimates that the program's integral proprietary defect characterization system alone will result in taxpayer savings of $100,000,000 over 10 years.

$0.8M, IMTEC (Ardmore) - Tactical Metal Fabrication (TacFab):

Funding will assist in the Army "Reset' efforts and address the need for cast parts for aging and worn-out small to medium size crew-served weapons. The Army and Marine Corps have expressed a need for a mobile foundry, co-located with deployed forces. The Tactical Metal Fabrication System will provide this capability and will serve as a companion and complement to the Army's Mobile Parts Hospital (MPH). This technology will increase the ability of our military to prepare for conflict by ensuring weapons parts are sound.

$2.4M, MDSA (McAlester) - McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP) Bomb Line Modernization:

Funding will provide critical upgrades to the Bomb Explosive load lines at MCAAP. MCAAP serves as the only load facility for all Air Force and Navy general purpose bombs. MCAAP also loads all Penetrator and specialty bombs for the services. Funding is necessary to support new explosive load requirements and modernization upgrade requirements.

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