| |
 |
|
News Index
|
| |
Mass. Pushes to Host Air Force Cyber Operations (State House News)
|
| |
By Gintautas Dumcius
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
BOSTON, MARCH 13, 2008…..
Massachusetts
is aggressively lobbying for the U.S. Air Force to pick Hanscom Air Force Base as the site for the headquarters of their cyberspace command center.
Gregory Bialecki, Gov. Deval Patrick's undersecretary for business development, said a decision from the Air Force on where to site the project is expected by the end of the year.
Patrick wrote last month to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne expressing "strong interest" in having the facility placed in
Massachusetts
, after state officials learned they weren't on an original list of sites because they hadn't said anything before, Bialecki said.
The headquarters would be one of several planned facilities across the for research and development on cyberspace and electronic warfare. Federal officials say the headquarters could bring between 400 and 500 positions with it.
The Air Force in 2006 announced the creation of cyberspace operations, meant to align electronic resources for combat commanders and protect cyberspace, treating it as a domain similar to land, air or sea. The operations come as terrorists have used Global Positioning Satellites, deployed financial transactions over the Internet and have hit American servers.
"We're really just trying to train and equip our forces to use our own information freely and exploit and deny that capability to our enemies," said Air Force spokesman Charles Gulick.
The command is temporarily being based out of Barksdale Air Force Base in
Shreveport, Louisiana
.
Massachusetts, with its defense and technology sectors and the large presence of public and private universities, is pushing hard for the permanent headquarters to be at Hanscom Air Force Base near
Bedford
.
"We're thinking this is the perfect location for this. We have the infrastructure and the academic industry here to support something like this," said Wyndham Lewis, vice president of the Mass High Technology Council. "We have a solid workforce as well."
The attempt to draw the headquarters to Hanscom will require another "BRAC-like" effort, with a number of contributors putting together proposals and packages, he said, referring to the efforts in 2005 to stop base closures in
Massachusetts
and around the country.
Hanscom is the state's ninth largest employer, with 9,000 direct jobs supported by the base, according to the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative. It also has a large electronic systems center.
"Hanscom is an obvious site," Bialecki said.
Fifteen other states are in the running, according to Gulick, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The
Bay
State
's bid surfaced as a topic of discussion at the monthly meeting Thursday of the Massachusetts Development Financing Authority's board of directors, of which Bialecki is a member. The authority is an independent economic development agency.
More information on the cyberspace command center can be found at http://www.afcyber.af.mil/.
|
|
|
Defense Sector Winning the Recession Battle (12/19/08)
Groups Call for Mass. IT Security Center (11/14/08)
Video: May 16 Breakfast with Congresswoman Tsongas at Mercury Computer Systems (7/7/08)
Governor Makes Case for Cyber Command at Hanscom (5/22/08)
Regional Effort Needed to Attract Cyberspace Command (4/25/08)
General Quenneville Tapped to Lead Regions Defense Voice (1/25/08)
Hanscom Could Be Site of Cyber Command Center (3/20/08)
Bay State Officials Target Air Force Cyber R&D Dollars (1/4/08)
Natick Labs: Business, Military Putting Their Brains Together (11/27/07)
Search
|
|
