Boston Herald
Saturday, May 3, 2003

Pols build Hanscom's defenses
Base-closure round threatens 35,000 jobs

by Tom Walsh

Top Bay State Democrats and Republicans yesterday vowed to wage an all-out battle to keep Hanscom Air Force Base from being in the next round of military base closures, scheduled to be completed in 2005.

The stakes are high, said U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and others. If Hanscom is axed, the Bay State would lose 9,000 direct jobs, 26,000 jobs supported by the base, and it would cost the state's economy $3.2 billion.

Part of the challenge will be to convince military leaders to think of Hanscom not as an airfield in the traditional sense, but as a high-tech laboratory, said U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Lowell), speaking at a gathering of the Build Hanscom Alliance in Bedford.

Meehan pointed out that Hanscom is home to the Air Force's Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence and Reconnaissance programs, known by the acronym C4ISR.

A number of Massachusetts companies provide the Air Force ``cutting-edge technologies in these critical areas,'' he said.

Meehan said the value of Hanscom to national defense was seen in the Iraq war, during which Hanscom-developed Joint Stars aircraft provided battlefield coordination between air and ground.

Hanscom and the Natick Army Soldier Systems Center, known as the Natick Labs, survived the previous round of closures in 1995, though the South Weymouth Naval Air Station was closed. Decision makers on the South Shore have yet to figure out how to redevelop that property.

Now, proponents of military bases around the country are girding for battle in what is expected by many to be the toughest round of downsizing yet from the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

Some analysts say the commission could shut down as many as 100 of the country's 400 remaining bases. Four earlier rounds ended in the closing of 98 major bases and the scaling back of 304 others.

Kennedy said it's important for state business, civic and political leaders to become active in shaping the criteria that will be used by the commission.

Though Massachusetts does not have the space to house huge numbers of aircraft, tanks or troops, Kennedy said, the state's combination of universities and high-tech workers should help sway the commission to keep Hanscom.

Gov. Mitt Romney said state leaders need to convince the military that the technology surrounding bases should be a key factor in assessing which ones stay open. ``A vital technology cluster is an essential criteria to be added to the list,'' he said. Planning for the current round of base realignment began in November and is being managed by the Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The final list of closures is scheduled to be produced in September 2005, after which the president will approve or reject the list as a whole, followed by a straight yes or no vote in Congress.

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