Chet Edwards For Congress

Defense contracts net $7.2 million for Central Texas projects, studies

Waco Tribune-Herald | October 12, 2008 | By Mike Copeland | Tribune-Herald business editor

L-3 Communications will get $4.8 million to create a lab for testing new ways Navy EP-3E planes can spy on the enemy.

The money is part of $7.2 million approved for Waco projects in the 2008 defense appropriations bill President Bush signed into law.

Funds also will go to continue a study into the causes of post traumatic stress disorder in soldiers and to improve detection systems for airborne chemical and biological contaminants.

L-3, which is Waco’s largest private-sector employer, will create a Technology Integration Lab where new technologies for EP-3E spy planes can be “pre-tested” before being installed on the planes.

“This is a future project,” said Lance Martin, a spokesman for L-3, who added he does not yet know whether the creation of the lab would increase the company’s 1,600-person employment level.

The lab will dramatically reduce the time the planes must be pulled away from intelligence-gathering missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to receive systems upgrades.

The planes often receive their modifications in Waco.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, secured $1.6 million in the defense budget for a study into the underlying causes of post traumatic stress disorder. This is the continuation of a program that began in 2006 and involves the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Waco, Fort Hood and Texas A&M University.

“The Waco VA and Fort Hood are uniquely positioned to conduct world-class research with the Department of Defense and Texas A&M to find improved treatments and cures for veterans suffering from mental illness and post traumatic stress disorder,” Edwards said.

A Waco-based company called ACT I, short for Advanced Concepts & Technologies International, will receive $800,000 to come up with a plan for improving detection systems for airborne chemical and biological contaminants, which is a need identified by the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.

ACT I has received $2.8 million since 2006 to support studies of how to protect military men and women in combat zones from contaminated water. Those studies could benefit communities at home in the event of natural disasters or terrorist attacks.