$61 million in federal money heading to Montana. Butte getting $27.9 million

The U.S. Senate passed the Defense Appropriations Bill late Wednesday, which will bring $61 million in federal dollars to the state.

Butte will receive the single highest amount, $9 million for the MSE Technology Applications http://www.mse-ta.com/ Mariah II hypersonic wind tunnel.

***

MSE’s MARIAH Wind project offers economic hope for all of Montana http://www.matr.net/article-11686.html

MSE of Butte gets $50 million wind tunnel contract with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command http://www.matr.net/article-11671.html

Scramjet test a success at Mach 7- The Butte Connection http://www.matr.net/article-10387.html

***

Don Peoples, MSE president, said this week that the money is for the third year of a five-year, $50 million engineering project tied to the Army.

The next phase is building a pilot wind tunnel to be housed in a 20,000-square-foot building at the MSE site in the Industrial Park.

“The wind tunnel would attract all kinds of aerospace firms to test their products in Butte,” Peoples said.

MSE employs 165 people. It has several offices across the country, including one recently opened in Idaho Falls.

“The great thing about this is we don’t compete with any other Montana business and we bring skilled engineers to Butte,” Peoples said.

He credited U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, Sen. Max Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg with securing the money for Butte.

Other funds approved by the Senate are:

Full Story: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2005/12/24/newsstate/hjjeihhfjjfbij.txt

***

MSU and Bozeman businessess slated for millions in defense funding http://www.matr.net/article-17453.html