Defense Appropriation Calls for AEWC Funding
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — The Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations Bill, approved last Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives, includes $4 million in proposed funding to continue and expand a University of Maine research project that offers the promise of added safety for soldiers serving in combat.
Congress has sent the bill to President Bush.
The money, if the president signs the bill, will support Research and Development at UMaine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites (AEWC) Center, where faculty and staff continue work on the Modular Ballistic System for Force Protection project. This work involves the creation of ballistic panel kits for interior installation in military tents, providing protection for those inside in the event of mortar attacks and other explosions.
The U.S. Army has provided funding support to bring the project to the point where successful testing has been completed and prototype kits have been built and shipped to the Army. AEWC completed the project’s first stage in one year, about half the originally anticipated time. That work was also significantly below the budgeted cost.
“If it comes to fruition, the additional funding will allow us to move forward on the testing and research, while also advancing toward the point where private manufacturing becomes reality,” says Prof. Habib Dagher, AEWC director.
All four members of Maine’s Congressional delegation played an important role in helping secure this new funding, according to Dagher and Michael Eckardt, UMaine’s vice president for research.
“Federal government funding for projects like this one makes it possible for UMaine researchers to apply their skills and expertise to helping solve statewide and national problems,” says Eckardt. “This project represents an outstanding example of the kind of meaningful accomplishments that can occur when a great idea meets a critical need. Maine-based faculty researchers and students are doing important work on this project, employing the latest technology to save lives.”
The bill also included a $14 million appropriation for the Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) program. If the president signs the bill into law, UMaine and other Maine researchers will have the opportunity to compete with researchers from 23 other specifically designated states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for funding from that program.