Boston Globe
September 21, 2004

Air Force brass hear Hanscom base expansion plan

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON --Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy met
with top Air Force officials Tuesday to push their plan to expand Hanscom
Air Force Base in Bedford and lower its chances of being shut down in 2005
round of base closings.

In an hour-long meeting at the Pentagon with Air Force Secretary James G.
Roche, Romney and Kennedy, D-Mass., detailed the estimated $410 million
expansion proposal to turn the base into a high-tech military research hub.

Kennedy and Romney, a Republican, stressed that the entire cost would be
borne by the state. They said the expansion would help the military cut
operating costs while enhancing its research and development systems by
taking advantage of nearby research centers, including universities and
military contractors.

Air Force spokesman Col. Terry Holliday described the meeting as cordial,
but would not say what the military officials thought of the plan. Romney
and Kennedy will continue to lobby for the proposal during an Oct. 4, visit
to the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in
Ohio.

Romney said the expansion plan is part of a strategy to make the base more
competitive during the ongoing base realignment and closure review.

The plan, said Romney, "will create thousands of new jobs and save the ones
that are already there by making the base more indispensable to the
Pentagon's research and development needs."

The proposal, developed by the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative,
a public-private consortium, would add 1.2 million square feet of high-tech
research space and 800 housing units. It would add 4,000 new jobs to the
8,500 workers on base and 21,500 off the base.

Pentagon officials have said there is about 20 to 25 percent excess capacity
in its military bases. In four earlier rounds of base closures, 387 bases
were closed or realigned.

==========
**NOTICE: In accordance with 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.**
==========