Raytheon Corp. says new “guided” missile technology developed in Tucson can help reduce civilian deaths and other collateral damage in combat.

Missiles equipped with Raytheon’s Paveway IV kit have new safety features aimed at preventing premature detonation.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence already has spent about $70 million on the technology, which it used in November and December in Afghanistan.

“We need to target precisely and accurately and hit precisely . . . where we want to,” said Commander Kevin Seymour of the UK’s Royal Navy strike wing, adding that the Paveway IV accomplishes that goal.

The system combines laser and global-positioning-system technology included in previous Paveway models to help missiles navigate through clouds and dust and more accurately pinpoint critical targets. The new kit also can be fitted to smaller missiles, resulting in less shrapnel when the bomb explodes on target.

Raytheon officials expect other foreign military agencies will buy the Paveway IV, which could be a boon for the company as some analysts expect the Obama administration to cut U.S. defense spending.

Howard Rubel, a stock analyst who follows Raytheon for Jefferies & Co. Inc. in New York City, wrote in a recent report that international sales “should nicely exceed U.S. defense spending over the next few years.”

The Royal Navy is Raytheon’s first Paveway IV customer.

About 350 of Raytheon’s 11,500 workers at its Tucson-based Missile Systems division designed and developed the Paveway IV and assemble the guidance-control components for the warhead system.

The system is the latest phase in Raytheon’s Paveway line.

Enhanced versions of the Paveway II and III systems include GPS and laser technology, but the IV also is equipped with new safety features the UK requested.

The fuse used for Paveway IV has a special feature that reduces the likelihood of missiles accidentally detonating if subjected to intense heat.

The new system also does not arm a missile until right before hitting a target.

“(So) you don’t have the risk of it exploding prematurely and hurting innocent people,” spokesman Mike Nachshen said.

Seymour said the Royal Navy dropped 12 Paveway IV missiles in Afghanistan last year.

Texas Instruments’ Defense Systems and Electronics Unit originally developed the Paveway line in the 1960s. Raytheon acquired that part of Texas Instruments in 1997.

More military agencies are likely to jump on board for Paveway IV when they order new aircraft, which have to be equipped with the missiles, said Harmon Stockwell, senior manager of business development for the Paveway program.

Ricky Freibert, Paveway program director at Raytheon, said a Middle Eastern country has expressed interest in buying Paveway IV missiles but declined to say which country.

Raytheon won the contract to build the Paveway IV for the UK in 2003, incorporating specific features the Royal Navy required.

The fuse used for Paveway IV has key features found in previous models, including an “airburst” function that allows a missile to explode before hitting a target.

The bomb can be programmed to explode at a specific altitude, which is useful for canvassing larger target areas, Freibert said.

However, the fuse can also delay explosion until after a missile hits a target to minimize collateral damage. For instance, a bomb could be timed to hit a specific corner of a building and not explode until after it has broken through a wall.

One bonus to the system is the flexibility it provides agencies. Like other Paveway programs, missiles equipped with Paveway IV do not need to be programmed before being shipped out on an aircraft, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a security information Web site in Alexandria, Va.

The Paveway IV also can be used with lighter weight bombs, which results in less shrapnel from explosions and greater efficiency for carrying missiles.

“In today’s environment, where it is so important to not destroy infrastructure, a larger warhead is not necessarily better,” Stockwell said.

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Raytheon Missile Systems

Headquarters: Tucson

Business: Division of Raytheon Corp., which builds weapons and defense technology for domestic and foreign military agencies

President: Taylor Lawrence

Employees: 11,500 in Tucson, 12,500 total

Revenue: $5.4 billion in 2008, up 7.7 percent from 2007

Web site: www.raytheon.com

PHOENIX – Nearly two years after Arizona’s Sept. 11 memorial was dedicated, revisions that include taking away some of the most controversial inscriptions on it are almost done.

Memorial supporters hope the changes put to rest controversy about the memorial since it was unveiled at the state Capitol in downtown Phoenix on Sept. 11, 2006, the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

Among the changes made to the memorial since then include removing a pair of inscriptions referencing an “erroneous U.S. airstrike” in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden’s address to the American people.

Two less contentious inscriptions have taken their place, and a large plaque with a series of explanatory panels has been installed along the walkway leading to the memorial.

Minor finishing touches to the memorial are expected to take no more than a few weeks.

Critics of the original memorial called some of its 54 inscriptions unpatriotic or anti-military. GOP gubernatorial candidate Len Munsil vowed to tear down the memorial if elected in 2006. He wasn’t.

In the last legislative session, Republican Rep. John Kavanagh sponsored a bill that would have removed from the memorial a dozen inscriptions that he considered most egregious.

But the bill died, giving the 9/11 Memorial Commission time to complete its planned revisions, which cost about $50,000. That’s in addition to the roughly $600,000 spent to construct the memorial, paid for with private donations.

Commission member Shelley Cohn said she hopes the changes help visitors put the memorial in context.

“It’s very concrete and specific,” she said of the plaque. “It complements the rest of the memorial, which was more abstract and poetic. Not everybody is happy. But I think the approach is a sound one.”

Kavanagh called the addition of the explanatory plaque much needed, but said the overall revisions are “too little, too late.” He said he believes Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano would block further legislation to overhaul the memorial, but that the votes in the House are there.

Pupils hear stories of heartbreak, oppression and hope

Ismail Mberwa (left) reacts as he listens to Kadar Iman talk about some of the horrible things he endured in Somalia. They were speaking at Law Day at Superior Court.

Sara Nabi, an Afghan refugee, fled the Taliban to come to America.

She told about 300 students Monday about a lawless life in Afghanistan and the value of her new life in this nation of laws, America.

The Catalina High Magnet School student said that if she’d remained in her homeland, “I’d be a wife of some guy I had never met and I would have kids.”

She also wouldn’t be getting a publicly funded education or planning to go on to college and medical school.

Nabi; Kadar Iman, a native of Somalia; and Ismail Mberwa, also of Somalia, described heart-breaking stories of the killings of family members that drove them to flee their countries.

All three attend Catalina.

Nabi fled Afghanistan to Pakistan and the Somali teens fled to Kenya before coming to Tucson.

Their appearance was part of Law Day 2008, sponsored locally by Pima County Superior Court and the Young Lawyers Division of the Pima County Bar Association.

According to the American Bar Association, the event aims to spark discussion of America’s “heritage of liberty under law.”

The 300 high school and middle school students attended the event at the Pima County Courthouse and Board of Supervisors meeting room downtown.

The students also toured court rooms.

Iman said his mother died when he was 7.

“My dad had four wives at the time,” he said. He was the oldest of his father’s children.

The family walked for three days from Somalia to Kenya with no water or food, he said.

“My mom died two months later. The genocide in Somalia killed my grandpa, grandma and my sisters,” he said. “People were murdered in front of us for no reason. In Somalia, there’s no government to solve the problem.”

Now, at Catalina, “my new friends and my teachers help me a lot,” he said.

Nabi said she left Afghanistan when she was 2.

“The Taliban said they were the law. We had to follow their rules. I saw my uncle die. They hanged him. I lost my dad,” she said.

The family walked three days through the mountains to Pakistan, she said, and eventually sought refugee status in America.

Mberwa said he lost his father when he was 6. He wants “to get education so I can go back to my country to make it better.”

He described a life on the run evading civil war.

“A lot of people died (in Somalia) because of no food, nothing at all. No place you can cook because you don’t know where you can go by nighttime.

“I don’t want to go back to my country. I saw a lot of negative things going on,” he said.

Tom Volgy, a University of Arizona political science professor and former mayor of Tucson, moderated the discussion. He fled Hungary for the United States in 1959. He told the students, “The rule of law doesn’t guarantee everything. If we care enough and we do our jobs well as citizens, we always have opportunity, the opportunity that these young people came here for.”

Hundreds of students attended Law Day at Superior Court.

Sara Nabi talks about her young life under the Taliban rule before her family fled from Afghanistan. She saw some of her family killed.

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Winners of the Young Lawyers Division of the Pima County Bar Association essay contest:

The first-place essay winner is Oulianna Panova, who gets $200 from the lawyers group.

The second-place winner is Sarah Spofford, who gets $150.

Jaissa Heck, the third-place essay contest winner, gets $100.

All three are in teacher Charlotte Spoon’s class at the Academy of Math and Science, a charter school.

The school, at 1557 W. Prince Road, offers all subjects and emphasizes math and science.

Carolyn Rashti (left) of the Raging Grannies and Mel Layton join about 35 other people in front of the Joel D. Valdez Main Library downtown to protest the war in Iraq and remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was marked by protesters downtown who called for a new investigation into the events of that day and an end to the war in Iraq.

About 35 demonstrators held placards and handed out literature Tuesday in the hot noon sun to passers-by in front of the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., for about three hours, observed by a handful of police.

The demonstration was one of hundreds across the nation to remember the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, and the casualties of the wars that followed.

Many participants downtown said they believe that the Sept. 11 attacks were known about in advance, or even orchestrated, by the Bush administration, which was intent of creating a disaster that would whip the public into a war fervor.

A Zogby International poll conducted last week showed that 51 percent of respondents said they want Congress to probe the administration’s actions “before, during and after the 9/11 attacks.”

The poll was commissioned by 9/11Truth.org, a national organization that wants a new investigation of the terror attacks.

The poll shows that Americans are unsatisfied with the official government theory of the events of the day, Robert Kahl, a group co-founder and investment banker, said.

“The biggest thing is to pop as many bubbles as possible,” said J.T. Waldron, a Tucson video and audio production company co-owner who joined in the event.

Some downtown workers who ate lunch nearby dismissed the idea of a government conspiracy.

“A successful conspiracy depends on an efficient government,” Joel Feinman, a law clerk, said. “This government can’t keep anything secret.”

For some, the demonstration hit close to home.

“I lost two nephews in Iraq last year,” Carolyn Rashti, a member of the anti-war group Raging Grannies, said. “It’s enough already. It’s time to get out of Iraq.”

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. José Lopez served two tours in the Vietnam War.

“It’s a free country,” he said. “We fought for freedom of speech.”

UA senior Nick Michaud walks by the 9/11 memorial.

These flags, set up as a memorial for the many who died in terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, are outside the University of Arizona Administration Building.

The flags were put up by the UA College Republicans.

Tucson is slated to get $4.9 million in the latest round of federal Homeland Security grants to update its disaster preparedness.

The projects the money will help pay for have not been decided, said Lt. Wes Dison, commander of the Tucson Police Department’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division.

Local emergency service administrators will decide together which projects on their wish list will have priority. Possibilities include developing a mass evacuation plan for the Tucson area or improving emergency communications throughout the area, Dison said.

The $747 million in direct anti-terror aid to 46 cities is expected to be announced Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

The department plans to distribute $410 million to seven cities considered at the greatest risk of attack: New York; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Jersey City, N.J.; the San Francisco Bay Area and Houston. The rest is divided among Tucson and 38 other cities.

The entire program came under intense criticism last year when the two cities struck hardest by the 2001 terror attacks, New York and Washington, each saw a 40 percent cut in funding. New York is getting $134 million, up from $124 million last year; Washington is getting $62 million, up from $46 million.

Phoenix is getting $12 million, up from $4 million last year. San Diego – $16 million, up from $8 million – and Denver – $7.9 million, up from $4.4 million – were also big winners.

Orlando, Fla., lost $3.8 million and will get $5.6 million. Miami lost $4 million and will get $12 million.

Tucson did not receive a grant last year.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is still waiting to hear whether it will receive the $7.5 million it sought for its Border Crimes Unit as part of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security’s $135 million request from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Citizen Staff Writer Blake Morlock contributed to this article.

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Anti-terror aid amounts to cities, with figures rounded to the nearest million or $100,000, according to an early list provided to lawmakers and obtained by The Associated Press:

Tier I cities

New York City: $134 million, up from last year’s $124 million

Los Angeles/Long Beach: $72 million, down from last year’s $80 million

D.C. region: $62 million, up from last year’s $46 million

Chicago: $47 million, down from last year’s $52 million

Jersey City/Newark, N.J.: $36 million, up from last year’s $34 million

San Francisco: $34 million, up from last year’s $28 million

Houston: $25 million, up from last year’s $17 million

Tier II cities

Dallas: $21 million, up from last year’s $14 million

Philadelphia: $19 million, down from last year’s $20 million

San Diego: $16 million, up from last year’s $8 million

Atlanta: $15 million, down from last year’s $19 million

Detroit: $15 million, down from last year’s $19 million

Boston: $14 million, down from last year’s $18 million

Anaheim/Santa Ana, Calif.: $14 million, up from last year’s $12 million

Miami: $12 million, down from last year’s $16 million

Phoenix: $12 million, up from last year’s $4 million

Baltimore: $12 million, up from last year’s $10 million

Seattle: $11 million, up from last year’s $9 million

Las Vegas: $9 million, up from last year’s $8 million

St. Louis: $9 million, about the same as last year

Tampa, Fla.: $8.6 million, down slightly from last year’s $8.8 million

Twin Cities, Minn.: $8.4 million, up from last year’s $4.3 million

Kansas City, Mo.: $8.4 million, down from last year’s $9.2 million

Norfolk, Va.: $8 million. The city was not on the list last year.

Denver: $7.9 million, up from last year’s $4.4 million

Portland, Ore.: $7.8 million, down from last year’s $9.4 million

Indianapolis: $7.7 million, up from last year’s $4.3 million

Pittsburgh: $6.9 million, up from $4.9 million

San Antonio: $6.8 million, up from $4.5 million last year

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.: $6.6 million, down from $10 million last year

Jacksonville, Fla.: $5.9 million, down from $9.3 million last year

El Paso, Texas: $5.8 million. The city was not on the list last year.

Orlando, Fla.: $5.6 million, down from last year’s $9.4 million

Cleveland: $5.5 million, up from last year’s $4.7 million

Buffalo, N.Y.: $5.5 million, up from last year’s 3.7 million

Cincinnati: $5.2 million, up from last year’s $4.7 million

Providence, R.I.: $5.2 million. The city was not on the list last year.

Honolulu: $5.2 million, up from last year’s $4.8 million

Charlotte, N.C.: $5 million, down from last year’s $9 million

Tucson: $4.9 million. The city was not on the list last year.

Oklahoma City: $4.8 million, up from last year’s $4.1 million

Columbus, Ohio: $4.7 million, up from last year’s $4.3 million

Milwaukee: $4.6 million, down from last year’s $8.6 million

Memphis, Tenn.: $4.6 million, up from last year’s $4.2 million

New Orleans: $4.4 million, down from last year’s $4.7 million

Sacramento, Calif.: $4.2 million, down from last year’s $7.4 million

Jaime Naranjo, a research specialist with the University of Arizona's soil, water and environmental science department, explains the research conducted at Water Village. Naranjo holds an Aqua Star UV-C water treatment system.

The University of Arizona is working to keep the water supply safe from bioterrorists with more than $13 million in federal grants.

UA researchers are following the money, but many of the studies go beyond the discovery, treatment and eradication of bioterrorist contaminants.

They translate into everyday applications.

“We are part of Homeland Security’s EPA Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment,” said UA Professor Charles P. Gerba. A $10 million grant “looks at issues of bioterrorism in drinking water security.”

For Gerba and colleague Ian Pepper, UA professor of environmental microbiologist, much of their study is taking place near Tucson International Airport, at a site known as the Water Village.

“We have a network to look at if someone puts a disease-causing organism into the drinking supply,” Gerba said. Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University and Michigan State University are part of a consortium conducting the study.

“We are looking at the risk if a contamination happens. What’s the risk? What’s the exposure? What’s the impact on the population?” Gerba said. They also study how many people might die in an attack or how many might become ill from various agents that could be placed into municipal water systems.

While NAU and ASU are doing some Biosafety Level III studies involving work with agents that can cause serious or potentially lethal diseases from exposure by inhalation, UA currently only offers research at less-virulent BSL I and BSL II, said UA biosafety officer Mark Grushka. “The university has a legal, ethical and moral obligation to oversee work in the proper capacity.”

BSL III personnel have specific training in handling pathogenic and potentially lethal agents, Grushka noted. BSL I and BSL II require safety strategies, but don’t involve lethal germs.

“We use analogues in our work,” Gerba said. “We don’t use the actual agents here. But that kind of work is done at ASU or NAU. They work with tularemia, anthrax and plague.

“They are more laboratory-based for identifying the agents and characterizing them,” Gerba said “We are more real world, what happens in the real world if someone releases something.”

UA Professor Ben Munger, working with Dr. Frank Walter of the UA department of emergency medicine, is the principal investigator on a $3.5 million grant to provide state-of-the art preparedness training to to health professionals and emergency responders.

Since 9/11, more than 17,000 have been trained in the program.

Munger said he expects to be issued another grant, one worth $850,000 from the Centers for Disease Control, to further train health officials. The training addresses preparedness for all emergencies.

“I think the issue of Hurricane Katrina had a lot to do with the expansion,” Munger said. The goal is to train all public health professionals in the state, including county and tribal officials.

Professor Kelly Reynolds, who has an ongoing grant totaling about $300,000, works as a researcher and public health educator in environmental science, specializing in water quality, food safety and disease transmission.

Working from the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health, she serves as principal investigator of numerous projects and has published hundreds of journal articles, book chapters and professional reports on her work, including her current project, Monitoring Intrusion Events at the Neighborhood Level.

Regular water samples are taken at water vending machines, she said. Samples are tested for contaminants as part of a real-time approach to evaluate levels and types of microbial contaminants in drinking water, as well as the survival of contaminants on soft surfaces, including carpets and towels.

If a terrorist event occurs, her work would help responders determine the extent of water contamination and help determine when cleanup efforts are successful.

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ON THE WEB

For more about UA bioterrorism program:

- http://wqc.arizona.edu.

- www.ahls.org.

- www.crestaznm.org.