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State, local leaders pitch for facility
By Connie Paige, Globe Correspondent | July 31, 2008
Now that the state has formally proposed locating a new Cyberspace Command at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, local and state officials are preparing for top brass from Washington to visit the site this summer.
The officials are trying to entice the Air Force into picking Hanscom for the facility, which - with its mission to control cyberspace for waging war and protecting military computer networks - dovetails with many local industries.
"We have our shoes polished, and we're at ready," said Sara Mattes of Lincoln, chairwoman of the Hanscom Area Towns Selectmen Committee, which represents the four towns the base straddles and has played a key part in the lobbying campaign.
Local and state officials say the Air Force could benefit from using Hanscom, with its existing information systems, nearby defense laboratories and research and development centers, and information technology leaders working in the area in defense and commercial markets.
That was the argument used in a formal proposal sent by the Patrick administration to Washington in time to meet a July 1 deadline, according to retired Air Force Brigadier General Donald J. Quenneville.
In a recent interview, Quenneville, executive director of the Defense Technology Initiative, a Waltham-based industry group helping to coordinate the state's efforts to land the command, said Air Force top brass have said they will visit Hanscom this summer.
Plans for the visit are not yet firmed up, but the Patrick administration is "continuing to work with the Air Force," said Kofi Jones, spokeswoman for state Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Daniel O'Connell.
Quenneville said a preferred location and several alternates for the command site are set to be chosen this fall. He said he believes the final determination on whether the preferred location is appropriate will come after a required environmental review. The command is scheduled to open in September 2009.
The Air Force is choosing the preferred location on the basis of separate proposals submitted by as many as 17 other states, Quenneville said.
The Massachusetts proposal emphasizes that Hanscom already has the Electronic Systems Center, the cyber command's designated acquisition arm, and that it makes sense to locate them together in one spot.
Moreover, the proposal says, Massachusetts provides access to information technology leaders like Raytheon and General Dynamics that will partner with the Air Force in developing the cyber command mission, and has the MITRE Corp. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory cyber researchers headquartered nearby. The state also offers Harvard University, MIT, and the University of Massachusetts system, which "will educate and train the future cyber warrior," the proposal says.
The marketing plan also touts the Hanscom area as having sufficient network capacity, power supply, transportation infrastructure, and other features to provide "extremely low susceptibility to natural disasters."
Mattes, on seeing the Air Force's call for data in the proposal, joked that she "never thought New England weather would be a plus."
"But it's true we have no earthquakes or forest fires, we haven't had tornadoes, and the effect of hurricanes is minimal," she said.
Mattes said the Hanscom area committee, which represents Bedford, C
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