Wes Hickman (202-224-5972) or Kevin Bishop (864-250-1417)

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and 1st District U.S. Representative Henry Brown (R-Hanahan) today announced military projects in the Charleston area included in the 2005 Defense Appropriations Conference Report. The Conference Report provides $416.2 billion to the Department of Defense, including $25 billion in emergency spending requested by the President for early fiscal year 2005 costs associated with operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation passed both the House of Representatives and Senate and will be sent to the White House. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days. “South Carolina is in the forefront of developing cutting-edge military technology and equipping our men and women in uniform,” said Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Many people in our state give their time, talent, and even their lives to provide for the defense of freedom throughout the world. The patriotism of South Carolina is unmatched. These projects will help ensure that America continues to have the best trained and equipped fighting force in history.” Congressman Brown said, "The First District is on the front line in our country's War on Terror. I am proud of the contribution that our technology partners are making in this on-going effort, and I applaud their work in support of our uniformed services." Charleston area projects in the bill include:

• $4.5 million to Technical Solutions in Ladson: Technical Solutions produces the Buffalo, an armored vehicle that protects against landmines and explosive blasts. The Army has already purchased 24 vehicles which are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo.
• $2 million to SEICOR Automated Container & Cargo Handling System in Charleston: The funds will be used for design, fabrication and testing of a Phase III full-scale ship mounted Autolog container and cargo handling system. This system will enable ships to transfer cargo in high seas. Phase I and Phase II programs totaling $1.1 million have already been completed.
• $2.8 million to Marine Containers in Charleston: The Department of Defense will purchase approximately 120,000 Quadruple Specialty Containers (Quadcons).
• $3.5 million to SPAWAR in Charleston for Collaborative Information Warfare Network (CIWN) and $1.5 million to SPAWAR to Critical Infrastructure Protection Center (CIPC): The Collaborative Information Warfare Network (CIWN) is the backbone of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Center (CIPC) being developed at SPAWAR. The CIPC applies systems security engineering to reduce risks from terrorism across all infrastructure sectors. Utilizing SPAWAR’s high technology network-centric engineering facility and the CIPC’s information sharing and analysis architecture, the Center is developing tools to effectively fuse vital information, validating best practices to help ensure the availability, integrity, confidentiality and accountability of critical systems.
• $2 million to the South Carolina Research Authority in Charleston for Active Coating Technology (ACT): The ACT initiative results in coatings that actively adapt in real time to threats. The coatings sense conditions and change properties to overcome risks to successful missions. This will allow the Army to initiate the development of coatings for tanks which can actively adapt to the surrounding environment (changing color), repair themselves, inhibit corrosion, and reduce the signature of the vehicle. The coatings are environmentally compliant and economical to use.
• $2 million to GenPhar in Charleston: The need for effective vaccine treatments in cases of exposure to dangerous virus outbreaks is critical to the safety of U.S. Armed Forces personnel deployed in combat theaters and the U.S. civilian population. The dengue virus is one of the most dangerous of these viruses due to its debilitating characteristics. Because of the damage dengue wreaks on personnel readiness, the military has long pursued a vaccine against all the viruses’ strains. Working with the Naval Medical Research Center, the Multivalent Dengue Vaccine Program will provide a state-of-the art multivalent dengue vaccine that will enhance the health, safety, performance and deployment readiness of U.S. military personnel.
• $2.6 million to Scientific Research Corporation in Charleston: Joint Threat Warning Systems (JTWS) provides individual units with lightweight equipment matched to the worldwide mission requirements of Special Operations Forces regardless of their area of operations.
• $1 million to Supply Chain Practices for Affordable Navy Systems (SPANS) in Charleston: The mission of the SPANS program is to improve the affordability of Navy acquisition programs by increasing the efficiency of the supporting supply chain network. The objective is to help prime contractors work with their supply chains in the context of the new acquisition practices.
• $1.5 million to LEAN Munitions Program in Charleston: Lean Munitions will implement a 3-D MODEL-BASED “Lean Munitions” design and manufacturing lifecycle support system.

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