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BRAC secured 1,200 jobs for base, region

The U.S. military realignment included $332M in construction.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 8:46 AM Monday, October 3, 2011

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The massive, multiyear U.S. military realignment that brought hundreds of additional research jobs and $332 million of new construction to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will boost the region’s economy for years to come, the base’s supporters say.

“It was a huge undertaking,” said Jeff Hoagland, president and chief executive officer of the Dayton Development Coalition, a private-public organization that works to support Wright-Patterson and its needs. “They were on time and within budget.”

Base officials are to meet with reporters today to discuss details of the process.

The Air Force on Sept. 15 completed relocation of aerospace medicine and sensors research programs, among other functions, to Wright-Patterson.

It concluded the local portion of changes mandated by the nation’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure law. BRAC reviews have been done periodically since the Cold War to re-examine whether U.S. military resources are deployed as needed for today’s world.

Programs were moved to, or consolidated at, Wright-Patterson from installations in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts and New York state, with a mandate that no missions be disrupted during the relocations.

It included the largest construction program at Wright-Patterson since World War II, with a centerpiece complex — a $194.5 million project — that houses the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing and the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine.

The school, which had been located for 85 years in San Antonio, Texas, does research, trains Air Force medical teams that bring injured troops from war zones to hospitals, and analyzes environmental samples sent from military bases across the system, working at times with the government’s civilian Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in epidemiological assessments. The complex also houses research intended to improve human interaction and performance with increasingly challenging technology.

The BRAC process moved sensors research functions from Rome, N.Y., and Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., to Wright-Patterson for consolidation into the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Sensors Directorate there.

The relocations resulted in a net gain of about 1,200 jobs at Wright-Patterson, a 27,000-person operation that is Ohio’s largest single-site employer as well as a key hub of acquisition, logistics, research and development for the Air Force.

The newly arrived programs are attracting contractors that had supported them in other locations and make possible new R&D partnering and training agreements for companies, Wright State University, the University of Dayton and Kettering Medical Center, community leaders and base officials said.

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2242 or jnolan @DaytonDailyNews.com.