Posts Tagged ‘mission support/community partnerships’

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday during a hearing of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee that the Pentagon has no plans to close Eielson AFB despite the Air Force’s proposal to relocate an F-16 squadron from the installation in Fairbanks to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski had asked Panetta about the move, highlighting the reasons why it doesn’t make sense to realign the main active duty force at the North Pole-area installation. The secretary responded that the plan was intended to save money before clarifying the department’s intentions regarding Eielson …

Community officials in Sumter, S.C., are concerned that the commander of Air Force Central Command may not return from his three-year-long deployment to Doha, Qatar, to direct air operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their fear is that if Lt. Gen. David Goldfein does not return, neighboring Shaw Air Force Base could lose a 1,400-member contingent of the commander’s staff, reported the Item. “Shaw Air Force Base is 20 percent of our economy,” Steve Creech, head of the Sumter Military Affairs Committee, told the paper …

The military and aerospace industry are a major piece of Colorado’s economy, obligating local and industry officials throughout the state to consider the possible impacts of up to $500 billion in defense cuts over the coming decade. Colorado Springs could be particularly hard hit. The city hosts three of the state’s six installations, which contribute $3 billion to the local economy, and the military employs one-fifth of the city’s workforce. The “worst-case scenario” would result in the loss of 1,230 aerospace jobs and 3,300 spinoff ones in the state, Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., told the Denver Post. “It’s ominous,” Clark said.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last week praised the efforts of senior commanders at Fort Belvoir to work closely with the community in addressing the consequences of dramatic BRAC growth at the Northern Virginia post. Mark Moffatt, former deputy garrison commander of transformation and BRAC, was recognized for coordinating with Fairfax officials to determine how the influx of new workers at the installation would affect surrounding traffic patterns, reported the Belvoir Eagle. Garrison Commander Col. John Strycula was recognized for his past two years of leadership, including overseeing the expansion of Fairfax County Parkway …

In the run-up to the Air Force’s selection of a formal training unit and operating bases for the KC-46A, the next-generation tanker, the Senate Armed Services Committee is interested in learning how certain factors will be considered in a model officials rely on for basing decisions. In last year’s defense authorization bill, the committee directed the Air Force to consider the relative flying operation costs among candidate bases when evaluating where to locate a new mission or activity …

Provisions in the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill intended to protect states from an Air Force proposal to make wholesale adjustments in basing at Air National Guard bases potentially could leave the Montana Air National Guard without a mission. The state’s ANG base at Great Falls is scheduled to lose the F-15 mission of its 120th Fighter Wing this year to the California ANG as a result of the 2005 round of base closures. To replace the mission at Great Falls, the Air Force proposed moving C-130 aircraft from Fort Worth, Texas, to Montana as part of the changes in force structure it planned for FY 2013 …

Community leaders turned out in full force Thursday to demonstrate to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley their support for the Air Force Reserve’s 911th Airlift Wing located at Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. Donley toured the base and listed to local officials tout the value of the 911th, which the Air Force has proposed to eliminate under its fiscal 2013 budget request, reported the Tribune-Review. The secretary was impressed by the local turnout and by the base, said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald …

With a new BRAC round potentially close on the horizon, the Kern County Board of Supervisors toured Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake last week to gain a better understanding of what goes on at the Navy’s premier land range and weapons development laboratory. The base, located in the Western Mojave Desert of California, is used to test and evaluate weapons systems used on Navy aircraft, including unmanned aerial vehicles, and to develop new weapons and fuels. China Lake benefited from a consolidation of the Navy’s weapons testing and development functions following the 2005 BRAC round, gaining $350 million in construction and new personnel. The board and Scott O’Neil, executive director of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, generally agreed China Lake should emerge largely unharmed in a future BRAC due to its existing mission and geographic assets, reported the Daily Independent.

William “Dutch” Holland, a retired two-star general who commanded the 9th Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., has been named executive coordinator of the panel created to protect South Carolina’s installations from pending defense cuts. Holland’s experience at Shaw and work with the Sumter Base Defense Committee, the community organization that supports Shaw, qualified him for the position with the South Carolina Military Base Task Force, said state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, who heads the task force …

The Defense Department needs more comprehensive data to evaluate the true cost of changes in overseas military posture, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a new report. The congressional watchdog agency looked at two global posture decisions — shrinking Army force structure in Europe and forward stationing ships in Rota, Spain, for ballistic missile defense — before concluding that the costs and savings generated by the two moves are uncertain …