NEWPORT, Vt. (Tues., Oct. 22) – In a visit Tuesday, Senator Patrick Leahy announced that Newport’s Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) Gallet plant will receive several million dollars in new defense contracts in the coming year.  Leahy helped secure three new helmet manufacturing contracts and production orders for the company through discussions with the Armed Forces and through direct congressional appropriations. 

MSA Gallet, formerly CGF Helmets, manufactures a strong lightweight helmet which offers U.S. troops considerably more protection with greater comfort.  The helmet, the TC-2000, has been used by Special Operations forces working throughout the world in the war on terrorism, including by Army Special Forces deployed in Afghanistan.   

Leahy secured more than $5 million in the Defense Department’s annual budget bill for MSA Gallet to help the Army develop a next-generation helmet to follow helmets like the TC-2000.  The Objective Force Warrior program of the U.S. Army Soldiers Systems Center in Natick, Mass., will oversee the development of these new and improved helmets, which will provide better protection in nuclear, chemical and biological battlefields.  The budget bill provides for MSA Gallet to work with the Natick laboratory to explore new helmet capabilities.

“Military leaders have recognized the quality of MSA Gallet’s helmets,” said Leahy, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense, which handles the Senate’s work in writing the annual defense budget bill.  “Our fighting forces are on the front lines against terrorism.  In many respects this is a new kind of battlefield, where we must always strive to find the right balance between the sword and the shield.   MSA Gallet of Newport has developed helmets with unrivaled strength for their light weight.  What they are producing protects our soldiers and helps improve their effectiveness, and these are advantages that should be widely available to our troops.”