[Pollinator] Landmine Detecting Bees Included in Defense Bill

Thu Aug 10 13:34:19 PDT 2006

Thanks to Kathy Christie for sending this in.

DAILY BRIEFING
August 3, 2006
Defense bill includes funding for landmine detection bees 
By Peter Cohn, CongressDaily
In an fiscal 2007 Defense appropriations bill of roughly $468 billion, it is 
easy to overlook a mere $5 million for a new defensive weapons system -- using 
honey bees to find landmines and other buried explosives. 
But if Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and University of Montana researcher Jerry 
Bromenshenk have their way, a homegrown Montana business consortium could 
soon be developing and marketing a new tracking system for a variety of military 
and commercial uses -- all using specially trained bees. 
"There's some fascinating research going on out there at Missoula," said 
Burns, whose push for federal funds might just help him win a tough race for 
re-election this fall. 
Supporters say the relatively small amounts Burns included in the Defense 
bill pending on the Senate floor could be the sweetener to eventually leverage 
billions of dollars worth of economic development in his state. 
Working with researchers at Montana State University who have been developing 
a laser tracking system to map where the bees go, as well as native 
American-owned S&K Electronics, Bromenshenk has been seeking federal funds to put 
together a prototype to lure private sector investment. 
"What the senator is trying to do is help us bridge that 'valley of death' 
between it being just university research to the point where it's something a 
little more mature," said Bromenshenk, who has formed a company called Bee Alert 
Technology Inc. 
"The commercial applications are incredible -- it's not just explosives, we 
can use the bees to find meth[amphetamine] labs, dead bodies and any number of 
other uses that I can't get into," he said. 
The immediate focus is on marketing the idea of using bees to track landmines 
and help locate improvised explosive devices. 
"At first I thought, this has got to be a joke," a Burns aide said. But that 
skepticism quickly turned into something else several years ago, after seeing 
the results of tests using honey bees trained by attuning them to the scent of 
TNT or other explosives -- just as they are attracted to flowers. 
"They mostly use dogs to find landmines and unexploded ordnance, but that 
will endanger both the dog and the dog-handler," the aide noted. "We saw tests 
where the bees would not only be attracted to the target point, but would be 
buzzing around the guys who conducted the tests, going after the hands that 
handled the explosives ... the psychological influence of that could be enormous." 
Bromenshenk said he has had discussions with military contractors, although 
until he can put together a prototype major deals are on hold. One potential 
investor, he said, is Washington, D.C-based RONCO Consulting Corp., which 
specializes in worldwide de-mining activities. 
"They have 4,000 dog teams working in 30-something countries, but it could 
take 400 to 500 years to clean known, existing minefields, to say nothing of the 
mines we don't know are out there" according to a RAND Corp. study, 
Bromenshenk said. He said bees could be more effective than dogs, reducing the amount 
of time needed to sweep for mines "10 to 15-fold." 
"If we could get even a piece of those 4,000 teams" to contract with his 
Montana-based group, "that would be a great scenario for Montana's economy." A 
RONCO official could not be reached for comment. 
The problem remains getting money to get the project off the ground and into 
marketable shape. After an initial period of interest by the Pentagon's 
Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, backers have found it difficult to drum up 
much support. 
Research into using honey bees to find unexploded ordnance has fallen out of 
favor at DARPA, which has funded all manner of research ranging from 
mechanical elephants to a machine that can read human thoughts. 
DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker said the agency has found that honey bees "have 
not proved useful" in detecting landmines and other explosives. Despite the 
lack of enthusiasm, with a nod from Burns, recent DARPA budgets contained honey 
bee research funds. As late as the fiscal 2005 Defense spending bill, $1.9 
million was included. 
Burns for the last two years has sought to insert the money directly into the 
Army's research and development budget, bypassing DARPA. Conferees agreed to 
include $2.8 million in the fiscal 2006 Defense bill and the Senate has 
proposed to add another $5 million in the fiscal 2007 version. 
Bromenshenk and Burns' aide said Army officials have expressed interest; an 
Army spokeswoman said the Defense Department had no comment. 
But judging from past Pentagon budgets -- and the fact that Burns is up for 
re-election -- it stands to reason honey bees will have another shot to try to 
oust their canine rivals as chief landmine-sniffers. 
This document is located at 
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0806/080306cdam2.htm

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
http://www.coevolution.org/
http://www.pollinator.org/
http://www.nappc.org/

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.
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