07 Sep 06. U.S. Senate Sets $200m To Fund Hunt for Bin Laden. The U.S. Senate on Sept. 7 unanimously approved an additional $200 million to this year’s defense budget to fund an intelligence unit that would seek to hunt down top al-Qaida terrorist Osama bin Laden. The measure, approved by a vote of 96 to 0, would also require the U.S. Defense Department to report to Congress every three months about progress made toward apprehending bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The legislation was authored by Democrats Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan as an amendment to the 2007 Defense Appropriations Bill being debated in the Senate this week. ”Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida, planned, financed and organized a terrorist operation that killed thousands of Americans. It has now been more than 1,800 days since those attacks, and this man is still on the loose,” Conrad said. ”The Senate agrees that it is chief among our priorities in the war on terror to bring the mastermind behind September 11 to the justice that a mass murderer deserves,” he said. (Source: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/Defense News)
01 Sep 06. Homeland Security IG Faults U.S. Coast Guard for Deepwater Management. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has delivered a scathing assessment of the Coast Guard’s management over its Deepwater information technology systems. A report released Aug. 11 by the inspector general, Richard Skinner, appears to confirm some allegations put forth last month by former Lockheed Martin employee Michael De Kort, 41, who used the unconventional platform of YouTube.com to air grievances with the information systems on the Coast Guard’s 123-foot patrol boats. In his report, Skinner charges that the Coast Guard has “limited influence over the decision the contractor makes toward meeting information technology requirements.” The IG says the service has too few personnel overseeing C4ISR programs, leaving the contractor — Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman — controlling much of the decision-making. The report adds that the Coast Guard has been forced to accept plans and equipment because it has cannot review contract documents before the contractor moves ahead with its plans. “One Coast Guard official stated that the agency must then either accept the work that the contractor has performed or submit a change request, which may require additional funding,” the IG wrote. The IG cited potential problems with C4ISR equipment on the new national security cutter, at the 7th District command suite in Miami and on the 123-foot patrol boats. (Source: Defense News)
04 Sep 06. Vanguard(TM) Mk2 bomb disposal robot selected for five year program Initial order worth $3.7m plus $1.6m option. Allen-Vanguard Corporation (TSX:VRS) of Ottawa, Canada (Allen-Vanguard or the Company), announced today that it has received notification from the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) that the Company’s Vanguard(TM) Mk2 bomb disposal robot has been selected for the Canadian Forces (CF) “MINI-ROV” program. The MINI-ROV program is expected to run for five years. The initial order is valued at $3.7m, with an option for additional robot orders at a value of $1.6m (all amounts in Canadian dollars). Ultimate quantities and contract values including in-service support over the life of the program are not yet established. The Company expects to fulfill the initial order in the first half of its 2007 fiscal year commencing October 1st, 2006.
30 Aug 06. Oxley Illuminate the London Underground. Oxley Developments in the UK has secured a production order to supply LED Displays for use in rail side electronics equipment on the London Underground. The high intensity LEDs have been customised for use in illuminated control boxes known as Mimic Panels which identify the schematic outline of the underground railway tracks. The LEDs will be supplied to a contractor of