The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a $440 billion defense spending bill that includes $95 million for Montana projects.

"A lot of this is research and development," said U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., a senior committee member. "It's a way to continually make our armed forces better and stronger, with cutting-edge technology. Montana has a great supply of brilliant researchers and the infrastructure to do the work."

If approved, the bill would provide money for the military to purchase $2 million in aviation-maintenance fall-protection platforms from Precision Lift, a Monarch-based company.

Company president Chris Croff said the platforms are large structures that wrap around aircraft and allow maintenance employees to work on the outsides of planes and helicopters without falling. The company is building them for aircraft as varied as transport planes, fighter and helicopters.

"We've been building these for a few years now and were really fortunate when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration extended its earlier requirement that these be used on maintenance of commercial aircraft to military aircraft as well," he said.

Precision Lift currently has a British Columbia company make the aviation platforms but hopes to have the company move its operations to the Great Falls area, he said.

Precision Lift formed to make Heli-Baskets, rigid-aluminum carriers that hang from helicopters without swaying or compressing. After several years of funding from the defense spending bill, Croff said Precision Lift "has pretty much satisfied the Army and Air National Guard demand for Heli-Baskets," and is now trying to get the Army and Air Force interested by showing them how successfully Guard units are using them.

Precision Lift employs six people in its Monarch administrative office and contracts with Spika Welding in Lewistown to manufacture the Heli-Baskets. Eight to 12 welders work on the baskets at any given time, Croff said.

The bill also contains $34.5 million for 11 different Bozeman area projects and $36.5 million for eight Butte projects.

The largest allocation is $12 million to MSE Technology Applications Inc. in Butte as part of a five-year, $50-million development of a prototype wind tunnel that can be used to test components for hypersonic flight, or flying at more than five times the speed of sound.

The research could lead to development of a full-scale hypersonic wind tunnel that would have to be built on a secure miltary installation. Butte and Great Falls officials have expressed hope that could lead to a major project down the road at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

The bill, which will be voted on by the full Senate today, also includes a 3.1 percent across-the-board pay raise for military personnel as well as increased basic housing allowance.