BRAC rounds in 2013 and 2015 are needed to trim defense spending and eliminate excess infrastructure, the installation chiefs for each of the services and DOD told the House Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee Wednesday. “All BRAC rounds have yielded savings,” stated Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment …
A committee in the Alaska Senate approved legislation Tuesday to help protect the state’s military installations as the possibility of one or more BRAC rounds looms. Senate Bill 222 would allocate $300,000 to hire a consultant to develop strategies to prevent the state’s bases from being closed or realigned …
Three Virginia state senators are asking the General Assembly for $2 million to purchase property surrounding Langley AFB that is encroaching on the airfield’s safety zone. “The urgency of solving the Langley Air Force base encroachment issue is a no-brainer when one considers the massive $1.2 billion economic impact that Langley AFB has on the Hampton Roads region …
Two measures moving in the Alabama legislature could raise the prospect that the Huntsville region’s Redstone Arsenal attracts new missions in a future round of base closures. Senate Bill 245 would make it easier for school systems to qualify for special renovation or construction bonds available to schools affected by mission growth resulting from BRAC 2005 …
The Military Affairs Coalition of Western Pennsylvania has started a campaign to rally public support for the Air Force Reserve’s 911th Airlift Wing which is slated to be eliminated under the service’s proposed budget for fiscal 2013. The group is placing more than 100 signs throughout the Moon Township. Its immediate goal is to postpone the unit’s closure until a BRAC round is authorized …
Officials in Jacksonville, N.C., and Onslow County are looking at a number of initiatives that could help the region’s Camp Lejeune take advantage of future BRAC rounds. “We’re trying to position ourselves to be in a place to benefit from any realignment or closures that take place elsewhere in the country …
The retirement of Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe at the end of the year will be a tremendous loss to Maine and New Hampshire in the event of a future BRAC round, according to supporters of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, located on the southern tip of Maine, just over the border from New Hampshire. “It’s a real loss for the shipyard as well. With Sen. Snowe retiring, the institutional memory is almost gone …
Civilian employment at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard grew slightly last year to a workforce of 5,187, according to a new economic impact report released last week by the Seacoast Shipyard Association. At the same time, long-term plans for the shipyard, located on the southern boundary of Maine, call for increasing the workforce yearly …
“There is no appetite for BRAC [in Congress],” Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told a delegation of San Antonio business leaders Tuesday. But if there were a new round of base closures, Hutchison said, Texas’ installations are in good shape …
In an effort to shave the projected cost of sustaining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Air Force plans to reduce the number of operating locations for the aircraft from 40 bases to about 30, Gen. Norton Schwartz, the service’s chief of staff, told reporters Wednesday. “It could go lower …