Defense Communities 360 Headlines

Hunt Development, the developer of privatized family housing at Scott Air Force Base, is fighting efforts by the Illinois General Assembly to make the El Paso-based firm responsible for annual property taxes. “We have two big issues with what the state legislature is considering,” Hunt Development Executive Vice President Robin Vaughn told the Belleville News-Democrat. “The Illinois Department of Revenue has concluded that the project is a license through a government agency and that it’s not taxable …

Defense advocates in Congress are becoming resigned to the prospect that the two parties will be unable to reach a deal to reverse government-wide automatic spending cuts before they begin to take effect in January. As a result, DOD may suffer cuts up to $55 billion in fiscal 2013 beyond the spending reductions already being imposed on the defense budget. Even if lawmakers fail to overturn the sequester in a lame-duck session at the end of the calendar year, the additional cuts could be somewhat limited if Congress strikes a deficit-reduction deal in the first several months of 2013 …

With veterans’ unemployment hovering at a record high rate and plans for 100,000 service members to leave the military over the next five years, the nation must make addressing the challenges of veterans a priority, according to a commentary in the Washington Post. Veterans offer valuable skills to employers, yet many companies do not appreciate how the skills veterans hone on and off the battlefield can benefit them. “We need to show them and offer them tools to better incorporate veterans into the workplace …

The Air Force plans to announce in December candidate locations for the formal training unit and first main operating base for the KC-46A, the next-generation tanker being built by Boeing Co. Officials then would launch the environmental impact analysis process, officials announced Monday. The formal training unit and first main operating base will be led by active duty units …

Interest is high among energy developers for the Army’s pending solicitation to develop large-scale renewable energy projects at its installations. The draft request for proposals — to acquire $7 billion worth of electricity over 30 years through a multi-award task order contract — was issued in February and prompted 900 comments …

When the Defense Health Headquarters — which will bring all DOD military medical health care operations to one campus — opens in July, about 3,000 employees are expected to exacerbate existing traffic congestion in Fairfax County, Va. Because the facility is located in leased space that already existed, however, the site was not required to meet many rules designed to lessen traffic impacts, reports wtop.com …

The House Armed Services Committee wants the Defense Department to consider using direct solar devices such as daylighting systems and light pipe technology to help the military conserve energy and increase its energy security, according to an amendment to the report accompanying the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill. Direct solar devices convert sunlight into useable light within a building or other enclosed structure without converting the sunlight into another form of energy …

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week assured Alaska Sen. Mark Begich that the Pentagon would provide its rationale for its proposal to relocate a squadron of F-16s from Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. Begich had asked the Air Force for the justification it relied on since officials included the realignment in the force structure changes they announced in February …

The Air Force controls the largest percentage of DOD-owned land — 49 percent or 7.0 million acres — with the Army coming in second with 37 percent. When all 28.5 million acres of land managed by DOD are included — adding public land, public land withdrawn for military use, licensed and permitted land, and foreign land — the Army controls the largest share, 49 percent, to the Air Force’s 35 percent. Data on DOD’s worldwide land holdings and an inventory of all of its facilities is contained in the FY 2012 Base Structure Report …

House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon forcefully defended the changes his panel made to the administration’s budget request in completing the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta criticized the House for flouting the spending caps imposed by last August’s Budget Control Act. “In your criticism of my proposal for the department’s FY13 authorization bill, you are clearly operating under some misconceptions …