WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., announced the Senate has approved the 2008 Department of Defense Appropriations conference report, which includes $8 million for the Joint Robotics Program at Camp Guernsey . The bill now awaits President Bush’s signature.

“I’m pleased the conference report passed by the Senate last night includes $8 million for robotics research at UW and the unique training facility at Camp Guernsey ,” Barrasso said. “This is a major victory for UW and the Wyoming National Guard.”

“ Wyoming ’s military bases must remain an integral part of our nation’s military training needs,” Barrasso added. “I am proud to have played a major role in supporting our troops and our military’s innovative technologies to help soldiers in the field.”

UW is set to receive $4 million under the bill. The remaining $4 million goes to Camp Guernsey .

Unmanned vehicles have become the new eyes and ears of our military allowing them to better control the battlefield. The Department of Defense has placed significant emphasis on Wyoming as one of the critical places needed to test and evaluate these vehicles.

U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas started the funding initiative for Joint Robotics and provided more than $7 million for the program over the last three fiscal years.

The Fiscal Year 2008 funding will provide for activities designed to make the Joint Training and Experimentation Center (JTEC) at Camp Guernsey an extremely effective testing site for the Department of Defense’s Joint Robotics Program.

The Wyoming Robotics initiative is a joint project between the University of Wyoming (UW), the Wyoming National Guard, and the Joint Robotics Program of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The University of Wyoming has established a robotics work area within the College of Engineering . The money will be used for a wide range of activities to support the needs of the Joint Robotics Program and continued development of the Joint Urban Training and Experimentation Center . The center will be an integrated joint training environment for the testing and evaluation of these platforms.

Half of the funds go toward the Joint Training and Experimentation Center at Camp Guernsey .  In addition to testing of a variety of new technology and training techniques with live troops, the program has created a mobile urban training facility for use by all units.  The other half of money specifically funds two projects at UW:  Fly eye optical technology and anti-jitter hexapod stabilizer technology.