Defense Watch

Defense Daily, Dec 8, 2008

T-AKE That. Navy Secretary Donald Winter names the next four T-AKE cargo ships after Navy Commodore Matthew Perry (T-AKE-9), Charles Drew (T-AKE-10), Washington Chambers (T-AKE-11) and William McLean (T-AKE-12). Perry led a squadron of ships to Japan in 1853 with the aim of opening that nation to trade, Drew's pioneering work led to the discovery that blood could be separated into plasma; Chambers was a pioneer in naval aviation, and McLean conceived and developed the heat-seeking Sidewinder air-to-air missile while serving as a physicist for the Navy.

Kansas Gets New Bio-Lab. The Department of Homeland Security says that Manhattan, Kan., has been selected as the preferred site for the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), a high-security laboratory facility that will study foreign animal and zoonotic diseases that can impact livestock. DHS has released the final Environmental Impact Statement regarding the Kansas site and expects a formal record of decision designating the NBAF site to be published next month. Facility design will begin in 2009 and construction will commence in 2010, with an operational capability planned by 2015. "This facility, once built, will help us to protect our livestock industry, food supply, and public health from the accidental or intentional introduction of a foreign animal or zoonotic disease in the U.S.," says Jay Cohen, under secretary for Secretary for Science and Technology at DHS, Jay Cohen. The NBAF will replace current facilities at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York.

[Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]