Defense Communities 360 Headlines

The chief of Air Combat Command said last week he would like to close “every third base” under his responsibility to streamline the service’s excess infrastructure and eliminate inefficient spending. And to make it more likely that Congress goes along with the Pentagon’s request for a new round of BRAC, Gen. Mike Hostage, chief of Air Combat Command, suggested the department reverse the methodology used for selecting bases to close …

The Navy has selected Naval Air Station Lemoore, located 35 miles south of Fresno, Calif., as its preferred West Coast home for the service’s next strike-fighter aircraft, the F-35C. Officials released a draft environmental impact statement comparing the impacts of basing 100 F-35Cs at NAS Lemoore versus Naval Air Facility El Centro, located in Southern California close to the Mexican border …

The Great Plains Development Authority has retained Jorgenson Consulting to conduct a national search for an experienced economic development professional with both business investment experience and a background in industrial property development. Candidates with a background in planning, engineering property management, site location consulting, land use planning and public finance should consider applying …

Since 1999, the 97th Maintenance Squadron at Altus Air Force Base has hired 112 students through an aircraft maintenance technician internship program it participates in with a training academy in the city of Altus, Okla. The Southwest Technology Center provides the initial aircraft technical training courses in airframe and aircraft engine skills to the mechanic candidates. And the 97th Maintenance Squadron provides hands-on experience to the soon-to-be aircraft mechanics …

The House Appropriations Committee is expected shortly to unveil its plan to fund the federal government beyond March 27 through a combination of a new continuing resolution along with appropriations bills for defense and military construction-veterans affairs. The stopgap measure for the second half of fiscal 2013 would not offer additional spending for the Pentagon but possibly would provide officials flexibility to allocate funds where they are needed and make other changes that normally would be restricted under a continuing resolution …

Full-time members of the Army and Air National Guard who work as military technicians are not exempt from sequestration and could be placed on unpaid furloughs along with DOD’s 800,000 civilian workers, Guard officials said last week. More than half of the National Guard’s full-time members may be furloughed, resulting in maintenance backlogs for all states and curtailment of critical training, especially aviation crew training …

While President Obama continues his campaign to pressure Republican leaders to accept some tax increases to offset the sequester, the Senate this week will take up competing plans to deal with the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to go into effect Friday. Under the plan introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), defense spending would be reduced by $27.5 billion over a seven-year period starting in fiscal 2015, rather than by $43 billion this year, as it would if sequestration goes forward …

Legislation proposed in Maryland to give veterans credit for military training and experience would help them find jobs more quickly after they leave the Armed Forces, a DOD official told a state panel in Annapolis this week. “From our perspective, this is one of the most comprehensive [bills] that we’ve seen,” said Frank DiGiovanni, DOD’s director of training readiness and strategy for the deputy assistant secretary for readiness …

As the likelihood that the Pentagon will be forced to absorb deep spending cuts edges closer, the anxiety level of the 4,200 employees at Letterkenny Army Depot, located 50 miles southwest of Harrisburg, Pa., has ramped up. The depot may have to cope with $442 million in cuts this year, jeopardizing the jobs of the civilian contractors employed there and likely resulting in furloughs for its 1,743 full-time civilian workers …

The Army and its partner Picerne Military Housing held a groundbreaking Wednesday at Fort Meade, Md., for the service’s first privately built, garden-style apartment complex designed for unaccompanied junior enlisted personnel. The $72 million project is intended to relieve the shortage of barracks on-base for junior enlisted personnel and save some of the 1,300 single service members at Fort Meade who live off post from commuting …