A grant from the Department of Homeland Security will help provide Connecticut’s first responders with over $8.2 million to upgrade the state’s preparedness in the event of a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack.

Of that total, $5.8 million is for equipment, and the rest is divided between funds for exercises, training, and planning, according to homeland security department documents.

The U.S. Office of Domestic Preparedness has been running this grant program since 1999, according to spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

The Department of Homeland Security authorized the grant last March, Roehrkasse said, but Connecticut public safety officials needed to present a statewide plan before they could receive the money.

Around $300 million of the $800 million in the program remains undelivered because states have not requested it, he added.
Defense spending is also a priority on the Hill. The Senate Thursday earmarked $18.5 billion for military projects involving Connecticut contractors, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the ranking democrat on the committee.

That number is based on a blueprint for 2004 Department of Defense funding which was established in the Senate Armed Services Committee, on which Lieberman is a ranking member. The funds represent just over 4.5 percent of the $400.5 billion total budget the committee outlined.

Recipients of the contracts include Sikorsky, which would get about $2 billion for 36 new Black Hawk Helicopters, and for research and development on the Comanche helicopter; Gen-Dyne Electric Boat, which is getting over 3.5 billion for new submarines and propulsion systems, and Pratt & Whitney, which produces engines for a number of military planes.

Pratt & Whitney’s F119 engine is used in the F/A-22 Raptor attack plane. The F/A-22 was supposed to be the Air Force’s next generation stealth fighter, but the program has been plagued by cost overruns that have forced cutbacks in production targets, and problems with the plane’s electronics have kept the fighters stuck in development. The Senate has authorized $3.5 billion for the purchase of 20 F/A-22’s in 2004, however congressional officials familiar with the program say that that authorization may encounter resistance in the House of Representatives if the problems with the Raptor are not quickly resolved.

A representative of United Technologies, the parent company of both Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky, expressed disappointment with the level of funding for the F-22 program Friday.

All in all, about $12.5 billion dollars are authorized for the production of aircraft with Pratt & Whitney Engines.

Last month, Pratt & Whitney announced that it would be eliminating some jobs at its East Hartford and Middletown facilities.

Mark Sullivan, a spokesman for the company, explained Friday that cost issues required them to move the jobs to other facilities. The company is currently preparing to enter negotiations with workers concerning the change.

The Senate blueprint adds $18 billion to defense spending nationwide from previous years--- slightly higher than the amount President Bush recommended. The plan also includes over $9 billion for the President’s ballistic missile defense system.

Also in the Senate plan was authorization for the Pentagon to fund two studies on nuclear weapons – one on the robust nuclear earth penetrator, or “bunker buster”, and another on the use of 5 kiloton or smaller nuclear weapons for a similar purpose, said Fred Downey, a defense and foreign policy assistant from Lieberman’s office.

Some senators objected to these studies, saying they went against trends towards nuclear non-proliferation that have characterized U.S. foreign policy.