The Youngstown Air Reserve Station and additive manufacturing programs in Northeast Ohio are expected to benefit from a $270 million defense spending bill approved Tuesday by a House of Representatives subcommittee.
Congressman Tim Ryan, a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said the Fiscal Year 2021 defense spending bill includes significant investment in Northeast Ohio.
He said the bill also aims to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
“We were able to get some very strong language in this bill around Buy American provisions, to where if the Pentagon and the Department of Defense look to waive any kind of the Buy American provisions, they’ve got to report that back to Congress,” Ryan said.
Here are some of the highlights of the Fiscal Year 2021 Defense Spending Bill:
- The bill provides funding for the procurement of two additional C-130J Super Hercules aircrafts for U.S. Airforce Reserve units.
- The bill allocates $5 million to research and develop new manufacturing techniques for rapid tooling and high temperature materials. This is being researched at Oak Ridge National Labs and Youngstown State University.
- The bill $37 million in research and development funding for large-scale additive manufacturing development, additive manufacturing training programs and other advanced manufacturing processes. Youngstown is home to the U.S. national center for additive manufacturing.
- $5 million is allocated for developing critical technologies for cybersecurity and resilience of Air Force avionics and weapon systems. The University of Akron is currently researching in this field.
- $10 million is allocated to researching advanced manufacturing techniques for building hypersonic weapons.
- The bill allocates $5 million for research and development of high-energy lasor weapon systems to defeat Unmanned Aerial Systems.
- $5 million is allocated to research materials that cool down buildings without using energy.
- The bill includes the Buy America provision, which requires the Pentagon to report to Congress every time it waives rules for domestic sourcing requirements.
- The bill requires the military to begin studying how to incorporate baseline brain injury testing of servicemembers when they enter the military to better determine who sustains traumatic brain injuries.
- The bill requires reforms to the military nutrition and dining system.
