Lowell Sun
September 21, 2003

Dogfight over Hanscom
First of three parts

By IAN BISHOP and JASON LEFFERTS, Sun Staff

BEDFORD -- Standing in the middle of Hanscom Air Force Base, surrounded by office buildings and manicured open spaces, it's hard to find a plane and near impossible to find a pilot.

The planes that dot the air are corporate jets speeding away from the commercial Hanscom Field next door, not speedy fighters or lumbering air transports.

Hanscom's military mission these days is high-tech brains over air-might brawn, smarter systems over bigger bombs, radars over planes. Inside Hanscom's office buildings, technical wizards from both the U.S. Air Force and the private sector are working on improving some of the most advanced communications systems in the world.

Through the last two years, American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have gotten a bird's-eye view of the battle area through radar technology created and updated at Hanscom. In a matter of seconds, the programs spew data that can be used to survey a battle situation and send information to command centers or individual pilots.

Despite those successes, Hanscom's future is in doubt. The military has reinitiated a two-year base relocation and closure (BRAC) process that will likely end up claiming a dozen military bases, almost one out of every four in the country.

Knowing that the local base may be in danger, state officials have started making the case that Hanscom is too important to be cut.

"Hanscom's not about having planes fly around," said James Kane, the chief operating officer at MassDevelopment, a state economic development agency. "Part of the argument (to maintain Hanscom) is it is part of the small number of places that have a small cluster of the best technology minds in the world."

Officials are loathe to discuss Hanscom's chances right now. But four earlier BRAC rounds during the last 15 years have nudged out all but the heartiest of bases.

Massachusetts officials and lobbyists have once again come together to plead Hanscom's case, pointing out the jobs and money poured into the region by Hanscom projects. The Air Force estimates that the base pours more than $3 billion into the regional economy. There are more than 7,000 employees on base (1,400 of which are active-duty military personnel), with thousands more jobs in private companies around the area that rely on Hanscom contracts.

Earlier this year, Gov. Mitt Romney, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, and more of the state's biggest political leaders met at a breakfast with area corporate leaders and announced the state's plan to save Hanscom and the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick.

MassDevelopment is spearheading the effort, managing the high-tech message and sending out waves of public officials and lobbyists in an attempt to preserve a key player in the regional technology economy. If Hanscom were to leave, officials say, the effect would be long-term and devastating.

"It would be a disaster. It would be an absolute disaster. It would take us a decade to recover," said Christopher Egan, a member of the board of directors at MassDevelopment, the state agency leading the save-Hanscom effort.

"Hanscom pumps in over $3 billion a year in our local economy," Egan said. "I buy coffee, but that doesn't help much. How do you make up for that? You don't."

But economic damage is not the keystone to the argument to protect Hanscom; every base in the country has an economic impact. Instead, the battle will be fought on two fronts, one based on politics, the other on the location and mission of each base.

Experts expect a brutal fight. The military has already gone through four rounds of BRACs, closing or realigning nearly 400 military facilities. Those left have both vital messages and powerful politicians to rely on.

"Now the bar has been raised. Now, everyone has at least a good to very good case, and they have some degree of political clout," said Philip Diehl, president of Fleishman Hillard Global Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that will lobby for some bases during the BRAC process. "You've gone through the heats and now you're in the finals, and everyone you're racing against is strong."

Hanscom's mission and smart political maneuvers protected it from previous closures, but officials are more concerned this time about being on the military's hit list. Especially because Hanscom's purely technological mission may leave it exposed to larger bases that have more traditional infrastructure for planes along with their communications programs.

Previous BRACs closed nearby installations like Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, Fort Devens in Ayer, and sprawling Air Force complexes in Maine (Loring Air Force Base) and Eastern upstate New York (Griffiss Air Force Base). The Department of Defense consolidated many of its facilities in the South and West, leaving Hanscom as its only Air Force base in New England.

While other bases like Loring were used to rumble planes in and out, Hanscom is used to develop the latest in warfare communication gizmos. The base is smaller than many in the military-rich South and West, and is limited by what it can take on in expansion in that it can not add a traditional planes-and-bombs facet.

Officials, however, believe there is room for growth. There is empty space available on the 840-acre base, and officials are looking at other areas nearby as options for growth.

The Pentagon has not detailed its selection criteria yet an important step that will unfold by the end of the year but officials are hopeful that the standards will include some support for bases like Hanscom. That was not the case during the last BRAC round in 1995, when items like runway length was considered.

Hanscom is the center of the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center. The mission is to create communication and command systems that allows the Air Force to coordinate operations in battle areas. The crown jewel is the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), which allows crews in airplanes to keep watch from overhead at a range of 250 miles.

"The challenge is to make sure the BRAC process and the people in the Pentagon take into account the Electronic Systems Center as a non-traditional base," said U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, a Lowell Democrat whose district includes many of the companies that do business with the Air Force. "Certainly, the last round of BRAC didn't recognize these valuable assets."

Massachusetts will rely heavily on the political clout of Kennedy who helped Hanscom stay alive in 1995 and well-connected lobbyists Ronald Fogelman and Alan Dixon.

Fogelman is a former Air Force chief of staff and a trustee at Mitre, one of the biggest contractors with Hanscom ties. Fogelman served in Vietnam, and won two Purple Hearts. Dixon served as a U.S. senator from Illinois, and chaired the BRAC commission in 1995.

But other states won't be left sitting on their hands. Already, commissions and coalitions have been formed to fight for local bases around the country.

Connecticut officials expect the southeast coastal region of the state which saw naval bases consolidated in earlier BRAC rounds but still hosts a submarine station in New London will come together like it did during previous BRAC rounds in 1991, 1993, and 1995. Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri has appointed a commission to protect the state's naval facilities.

Keith Stokes, the executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, serves on the Rhode Island commission. He said he would like to join forces with Connecticut and Massachusetts and make a wholesale pitch to keep New England's bases intact.

"I do believe there are opportunities for the three states to work cooperatively," Stokes said. "We have an opportunity for (Massachusetts Sen.
John) Kerry and Kennedy to work with Rhode Island and Connecticut senators. That's a strong political group."

Not everyone believes Massachusetts' congressional delegation has the power necessary to guarantee Hanscom remains open. Egan, from MassDevelopment, said the delegation all minority-party Democrats has a long voting history in Congress that isn't supportive of the Department of Defense.

"Unfortunately, it's going to be political. If you look at the voting by our congressional delegation, it's been lax over the last 20 years," said Egan, a Republican who has been a top fund-raiser for President Bush. "This is a real measure of the strength and leadership of our congressional delegation. They will be a success if it stays and a failure if it leaves."

Meehan, however, believes Egan is off-base in his judgment, and is confident the state's two senators and 10 congressmen can make a strong case for Hanscom.

"I think if the Pentagon were going to make a decision to close a base based on politics and not on national security and the president they should be impeached," Meehan said. "Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld is going to make a decision and pass them on to the president based on the national security of the United States.

"I've heard Chris Egan talk about his fundraising for the president and the vice president, and I don't think it is going to work that way."

Tomorrow: The political fight. Does the Massachusetts delegation have the clout?

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Lowell Sun
September 22, 2003

Meehan and Kennedy must wage quiet fight to keep Hanscom open Base-closing process aims to be apolitical

Second of three parts

By IAN BISHOP and JASON LEFFERTS, Sun Staff

WASHINGTON -- The process to determine which military bases will be closed is designed to be devoid of political manipulation.

"The argument used was elected officials couldn't make a decision because they would never look at a base in their district," said Rep. John Tierney, whose congressional district includes Hanscom Air Force Base. "But it doesn't mean there isn't any."

Just how much of a role politics and politicians play is difficult to define, given the public exposure cast upon the process.

Beltway insiders downplay the influence, saying 90 to 95 percent of the base-closure process is outside the realm of politicians. They say it is more tightly controlled this time under the Bush administration than it was in 1995 under former President Clinton, who caught political flak for appearing to spare several California facilities that were slated for closure.

That leaves 435 representatives and 100 senators jockeying to climb through the tiniest of portholes to steer the Department of Defense from closing their local base.

"Whatever political influence exercised is in the margin," said one veteran of previous rounds of base closings. "But it's too important not to pull out all the stops."

The all-important stops don't include a Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, cigar in hand, back-slapping with a Pentagon official, convincing him to spare Hanscom. That's just not how the influence is peddled.

It's far subtler, insiders say.

Kennedy and Rep. Marty Meehan, a Lowell Democrat, serve on their branch's powerful Armed Services committees. So Kennedy, and to a lesser extent Meehan, have more clout than rank-and-file Republicans who do not have military ties.

Beltway observers say the state's Democratic delegation won't be a detriment even as the GOP holds the White House and Congress. Kennedy, on issues that transcend party-line votes, is the party's 800-pound gorilla who Republicans often seek out to appease. Securing Kennedy's endorsement was the key stroke that won support for the Republican-written Medicare drug plan in the Senate earlier this year.

"Politically, it doesn't make any sense to (expletive deleted) with him," a congressional veteran said.

To counterbalance the appearance of a Democratic weakness among fearful Bay State residents back at home, Gov. Mitt Romney has vowed to call in all his chits with the Republican administration to save Hanscom.

"The effort to make sure Hanscom continues to play the key role (for military command and control technology development) is something I feel a personal responsibility to lead and be a part of," Romney said last week. "There is no question that having people on both sides of the aisle is helpful in Washington."

"I really do think that, yeah, we have the political side pretty well covered with Sen. Kennedy and with good Republicans as well," the governor added. "But I think our effort really has to focus on the substance of why Hanscom is an essential element in our maintaining a command and control superiority in national defense."

In Washington, where the decisions will be made, Kennedy and Meehan, as the state's lone Armed Services members, have fought to make sure there are open ears to that argument.

Each spring, as Pentagon officials cross the Potomac River and trek up to Capitol Hill to ask lawmakers to fund their military initiatives, Kennedy in the Senate, and Meehan in the House, sit before them.

But simply having a seat at the Armed Services table isn't enough.

"It's what you do with the political position you've got, not just having the position," one congressional aide said.

Kennedy and Meehan have used their positions to plant the seeds of Hanscom's importance with military brass, repeatedly focusing the warriors' attention on the base's effectiveness. And the Pentagon, insiders say, pays attention to the people who pull the purse strings.

"Human beings are human beings. They can't help but be influenced in some ways," one insider said of the practice.

Meehan worked the strategy to perfection earlier this spring when Air Force Secretary James Roche appeared before the Armed Services Committee.

"They have been key," Roche told Meehan of Hanscom. "I can tell you it's hard to imagine any of our advanced programs that we do not involve the (Electronic Systems Command based at Hanscom) in."

Roche's remarks, entered into congressional testimony, can be brought up again to bolster Hanscom's case.

While the Armed Services hearings give Kennedy and Meehan a chance to influence the military's line of thinking, the relationships they've built with Defense Department leaders through their committee assignments opens the Pentagon to the lobbyists hired by MassDevelopment.

A simple meeting of Pentagon staff with MassDevelopment's lobbyists, requested by Kennedy and Meehan, could be the critical component in ensuring Hanscom's intangible qualities receive the proper review. The meeting itself may be a byproduct of politics. The substance of the meeting is not.

Two sources close to the effort to save Hanscom have confirmed that MassDevelopment's lobbyists have met with Pentagon decision-makers to present a 35-minute briefing. The briefing, sources say, focuses on trying to shape the criteria to be used during the 2005 round of base closures to favor Hanscom, and also centers on the military's need to keep its science centers open.

MassDevelopment has entrusted much of the fate of Hanscom to former Air Force Gen. Ronald Fogelman, former Illinois Sen. Alan Dixon and former Kennedy defense aide Steven Wolfe. The lobbyists, in turn, have relied on consulting firms to compile the research for the briefings for Pentagon leaders.

"The politicians can get decision makers to look at this (briefing)," one insider said. "But the decision makers at the Pentagon are really bureaucrats and not political appointees, so if the briefing doesn't have merit it doesn't go anywhere."

In past base closure rounds, an installation's merits or lack thereof, trumped any political influence.

During a previous round of closures in 1993, Maine's senior senator, George J. Mitchell, was the Senate Majority leader and its junior senator, William Cohen, would go on to become Secretary of Defense, yet they lost an Air Force base.

That facility, Loring Air Force Base, housed long-haul bombers that were positioned for Cold War era strikes against the Soviet Union. But as the demands of the military in a post-Communism world faded, not even the clout of high-placed lawmakers could hold off a closure.

The Massachusetts team fighting to save Hanscom expects the same this go around. But making the task exceedingly difficult for MassDevelopment and its lobbyists is the fact that Hanscom's strengths can't be qualified to bureaucrats with numbers.

It is not the undersized, knock-kneed horse of Air Force bases, advocates say. Look closely, they say, and it becomes apparent that Hanscom is the Air Force's equivalent of Seabiscuit a successful blend of intelligence and intangibles.

"If you look carefully enough, there is a strong case," said one person familiar with the effort under way. "These people at the Department of Defense have a lot on their plate right now, but do they look carefully or do they take the easy route?"

The route the Pentagon takes will be apparent soon.

The Defense Department will disclose its criteria for the next round of base closures later this year, and must submit a list of recommended closings and realignments to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission by May 15, 2005. The BRAC Commission is then charged with submitting its final decisions to the president by Sept. 8, 2005. Congress must then consider the president's amended recommendations without amendment.

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Lowell Sun
September 23, 2003

Hanscom's high-tech reputation offers best chance for survival

Last of three parts

By IAN BISHOP and JASON LEFFERTS
Sun Staff

BEDFORD -- Facing what may be long odds in another fight to save Hanscom Air Force base from shutting down, the state's political power structure went to its ace to set the early tone.

At a breakfast meeting held in early May two years before Hanscom's fate will be decided by a federal commission Sen. Edward Kennedy, the state's most senior elected official, made the pitch he and others believe is the best argument for saving the installation.

Kennedy told more than 100 area business and government leaders, many of whom do business with the Air Force through Hanscom, that the smart, high-tech minds who flood Hanscom and its private contractors from Harvard, MIT and other learning institutions in the area were the keys to survival.

"We're talking about the best in terms of brains, we're talking about the best in terms of technology," Kennedy said. "The best technology is developed here at Hanscom."

Nearly five months later the message is the same. As the Pentagon begins the base relocation and closure (BRAC) process to close up to one-quarter of its bases by 2005, Massachusetts leaders are pushing positives like Hanscom's technological successes. And they're downplaying negatives, like the high cost of doing business here.

The effort may have recently won its first battle, as state officials received assurances that the selection criteria to be announced at the end of the year will be more forgiving for bases such as Hanscom, which has many research functions but little use for planes and runways.

In the last BRAC round, factors like runway length worked against Hanscom. This time, the military necessity of a base's mission -- in Hanscom's case its communications systems -- will likely play a larger role.

"In the past, Hanscom would be evaluated on the same criteria as an Air Force base that flew B52s or F15s," said Michael Hogan, president of MassDevelopment. "Hanscom is a technology research and development, scientific procurement facility. It is not an operation facility. There is no offensive platform that is launched from Hanscom, so you're dealing with apples and oranges."

Some of the state's top politicians -- Gov. Mitt Romney, Kennedy, and Reps. Edward Markey, John Tierney and Marty Meehan -- have combined forces in the effort. MassDevelopment, the state agency in charge of economic development, is also involved and has hired a team of lobbyists and consultants to push Hanscom's case in Washington.

During the next two years, the Department of Defense will scrutinize the positives and negatives of installations around the country. To make sure Hanscom doesn't end up being closed like Fort Devens in Ayer or Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, officials have formed a three-pronged strategy.

Perhaps most important is the mission at Hanscom. The Air Force base doesn't even own the runways at adjacent Hanscom Field, a commercial airport. Instead, the Air Force and private contractors research and create complex communication systems. Hanscom's successes and the never-ending stream of new minds being turned out by local engineering schools play a large role in this component.

"It's different from a traditional BRAC argument, 'We have x-thousand jobs and we need that.' It's not an argument that wins," said Alan McDonald, vice president of legislative and community affairs for MassDevelopment. "You need to find out what goes into making high-quality command and control. We're saying if you do that, it's a good thing for Hanscom."

Considering the billions of dollars in contracts the Air Force pours into the region, the business community has been signed on to the save-Hanscom effort since the May kickoff. Meanwhile, local activists groups like Save Our Heritage are far more concerned about commercial growth at Hanscom and are agreeable to the military's investment at the site.

In May, MassDevelopment said it wanted to raise $1 million in private donations to fund Hanscom preservation, to go along with $500,000 from the agency and another $1 million from the state budget. MassDevelopment says it hasn't started its fund raising yet, instead waiting to claim a few victories before trolling for cash.

Hanscom proponents also are trying to minimize the price of doing business at the base, which is tucked into one of the most expensive real estate corners of the country. They hope the quality of work done at Hanscom will offset some of those concerns, but they are also considering options to reduce housing costs and other financial burdens.

"The Air Force and the Army (which operates the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center facility in Natick) have asked us to examine opportunities for more affordable housing for the members of the service that are assigned to Massachusetts," Hogan said. "Housing costs are a critical problem for Massachusetts. It's an even larger problem for the military in terms of recruitment and retention."

MassDevelopment is preparing a package of cost-saving measures to present to the Pentagon. Near the top of the list is shaving utility costs by connecting Hanscom to a power facility at Devens, a former military base operated by MassDevelopment, which would offer the Air Force cheaper power.

"It's like we run the extension cord down Route 2," said James Kane, the chief operating officer for MassDevelopment.

MassDevelopment is also kicking around the idea of adding housing at the remaining military portion in the middle of Devens and dedicating some of those units to Hanscom, a little more than a half-hour away. Hogan said the agency is also trying to create a financing plan to allow MassDevelopment to build new facilities at the base, with the Air Force leasing them back.

Beyond whatever goodies MassDevelopment and the state can come up with, the heart of the case will be the deep pool of technology talent Hanscom can rely on, and the success those programs have had.

At that May breakfast meeting, just as the war in Iraq was winding down, Kennedy and others noted the use of Hanscom-developed technology in battle. It's a practical point that won't go away.

"Any final review of what has taken place, in terms of military aspects in Iraq, would clearly reflect enormously positively on not only the base, but also the universities and the private sector there," Kennedy said.

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