Boston Globe
June 4, 2005

Hanscom expansion is planned

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The Pentagon envisions a huge expansion of Hanscom Air Force Base, adding
three buildings at an estimated cost of $131.3 million in military
construction to accommodate new missions at the base, Defense Department
documents released yesterday show.

Construction would take place in 2006 and 2007 and would add 615,292 square
feet to a base that currently has 240 buildings and 3.7 million square feet,
according to the Pentagon plans described in the documents. The bulk of the
construction would be on a 570,000-square-foot general administrative
building; two smaller buildings would be used for electronics and
communications. The expansion at Hanscom is part of a restructuring plan
that would consolidate at two bases the Air Force technology research now
being done at six. Hanscom would conduct research and development for the
Air and Space Informations Systems Research wing. Edwards Air Force Base in
California would test and evaluate the new equipment developed at Hanscom.

The added work which Hanscom would take over from Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base in Ohio, Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, and Lackland Air Force Base
in Texas makes the new buildings necessary, according to the documents
released yesterday.

The Pentagon plans to add nearly 1,300 new jobs to Hanscom by 2008 and close
Otis Air National Guard Base in Bourne by the same year.

Planners at the Pentagon ranked Hanscom first in the Air Force and fifth in
the military overall in developing information systems technology, fitting
into the Defense Department's overarching goal of a leaner, more agile
military that favors innovation over manpower.

The documents, dated May 5, are part of the Pentagon's underlying reasoning
for its plans to close 33 major bases and reshape dozens of others
nationwide. The plans are being reviewed by a nine-member Base Realignment
and Closure Commission that will send its recommendations to President Bush
in September.

A Pentagon spokeswoman declined yesterday to comment on the documents,
saying she could not discuss proposals for specific bases.

The construction costs for Hanscom are built into an overall $254.4 million
one-time expenditure that the military would have to make in order to
consolidate the Air Force technology research centers.

Over the next 20 years, the Pentagon estimates the restructuring would save
$238 million by eliminating jobs and consolidating infrastructure.

It is unclear who would pay for the Hanscom construction. The Legislature in
February approved $242 million in bonds to expand Hanscom. The bond money
was enough to add 1.25 million square feet of research and development
office space and was meant to show the military that Hanscom had enough room
to expand and enough state support to foot the bill if the base stayed off
the closings list.

The state's expansion plan also includes a provision for 800 units of
housing at a cost of $168 million, funded by a private developer.

"Whether it's funded by the bond bill or whether it is an Air Force or
Department of Defense investment, that's to be determined," said Cort C.
Boulanger, vice president of the Massachusetts Defense Technology
Initiative, which is led by Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Governor Mitt
Romney and helped craft the expansion plan.

"From the surface of it, the expansion plan from the Air Force seems to jibe
with the plan that the state put together," said Steven Wolfe, a
Washington-based consultant who has been working closely with the state over
the past three years on the military realignment process. "And it seems to
make initial sense, but we need more data to figure out what the Air Force's
intentions are."

He said it appeared as though the Air Force is planning to fund the
expansion without state money.

The base, which opened in 1941 as a traditional air base training fighter
squadrons, currently houses the US Air Force Electronic Systems Center,
which develops command and control systems that gather information and track
potential military targets. The center spends all but $137 million of the
base's $4 billion annual budget.

The 846-acre base also houses a separate Air Force research laboratory that
investigates sensors and space vehicles and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, a
federally funded defense research center.

Hanscom's proposed expansion is part of a plan released on May 13 by
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld that calls for closing 33 major
bases to save $48.8 billion over the next 20 years.

The independent commission has until Sept. 8 to send a final proposal to
President Bush. Over the past four rounds of base closings, the commission
has kept about 85 percent of the Defense Department's recommendations.

Included in the closing recommendations are Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in
Kittery, Maine; New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn.; and Otis,
a 3,500-acre base on the upper Cape.

Under the current plan, New England would suffer the largest cuts in base
employment of any region, losing nearly half of the 29,000 jobs that would
be eliminated nationwide.

The Pentagon estimates that closing Otis and combining its mission with
facilities in Florida and New Jersey would eliminate 505 direct jobs and 322
indirect jobs and would save $336.1 million over the next 20 years.

Romney and Kennedy have criticized those figures for not taking into account
money that would later have to be spent by the Coast Guard and an Army
National Guard post, which together with Otis make up the 22,000-acre
Massachusetts Military Reservation in Sandwich, Mashpee, Falmouth, and
Bourne.

Under Rumsfeld's proposal, the 102d Fighter Wing at Otis would be
transferred, but the 253d Combat Communications group and the 267th
Communications Squadron would remain there.

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