Posts Tagged ‘mission support/community partnerships’

The White House objected Tuesday to restrictions in the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill precluding the Pentagon from planning for a new base closure round and realigning key missions at three particular Air Force bases. The base closure provision bars the department from proposing, planning for or carrying out an additional BRAC round. The other provisions prohibit the department from shuffling elements of the Air Armament Center at Eglin AFB, Fla., Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom, AFB, Mass. …

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 …

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 …

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 When all 28.5 million acres of land managed by DOD are included — adding public land, public land withdrawn for military use, licensed and permitted land, and foreign land — the Army controls the largest share, 49 percent, to the Air Force’s 35 percent.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 …

The Air Force is moving closer to carrying out its reorganization of Air Force Materiel Command by Oct. 1, the Warner Robins Patriot reported. The command plans to scale down from 12 centers to 5, including converting the depots at Robins AFB, Ga., Tinker AFB, Okla., and Hill AFB, Utah, to air logistics complexes. The command is aiming to achieve “initial operational capability” by Oct. 1. Several congressionally mandated reports have been completed and Air Force headquarters is expected to approve the changeover in May …

Amendments attached to the House version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill would preserve key missions at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, and at Hanscom AFB, outside Boston. The amendment sponsored by Ohio Rep. Michael Turner calls for the core functions of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Pat as of Nov. 1, 2011, to be retained. The core functions could be modified only through a subsequent law authorizing base closures or through 10 U.S.C. Sec. 2687, a statute allowing base closures and realignments to be carried out when a BRAC round is not in effect …

The House Armed Services Committee voted to halt the Air Force’s far-reaching plan to pare the force structure of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve that pitted the nation’s governors and lawmakers against the Pentagon. The language to bar the Air Force in the coming fiscal year from transferring or retiring any aircraft in its fleet as of May 31, 2012, was included as an amendment to the FY 2013 defense authorization bill. The committee approved the bill Thursday morning …

If it’s up to the House Armed Services Committee, not only will there not be a new base closure round in the immediate future, but the Pentagon will not be permitted to plan for one. The committee could have simply ignored DOD’s request for BRAC rounds in 2013 and 2015 — as the Readiness Subcommittee did when it marked up its portion of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill on April 27 — but instead it passed an amendment precluding the department from using FY 2013 appropriations “to propose, plan for or execute an additional BRAC round …

In Columbus, Ga., 55 to 65 percent of hotel guests are traveling on business related to the military, a fact that worries hoteliers that serve travelers visiting or working at Fort Benning. Due to planned reductions in spending, the post expects to train only 96,000 soldiers in the current fiscal year, down from 131,000 soldiers in FY 2011. The bulk of installation-related demand for hotels comes from training, graduation ceremonies and contract jobs, events that likely would shrink as the number of trainees declines, reports Hotel News Now. Fort Benning Army Lodge, an 860-room hotel scheduled to open on post later this year, also may hurt local hotels. Demand for lodging in Columbus fell 13 percent for the first three months of the year, while in other defense communities demand has been flat.