You asked how Massachusetts responded to the possible closing of Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB).

SUMMARY

When Congress authorized a new round of military base closings and realignments in 2002, the nonprofit Massachusetts High Technology Council began analyzing how Bedford’s Hanscom AFB (and Natick’s Army Soldiers’ System Center) benefits the state’s economy while contributing to national defense and homeland security. It did so by creating a creating a public-private partnership to gather data and inform the public and the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) about the base’s benefits.

The partnership—the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative (MassDTI)—gathered data that addressed BRAC’s statutory criteria for recommending base closures and realignments. The primary criteria stressed a base’s military value and the secondary criteria included the extent to which the community’s existing infrastructure supports the base’s military mission. MassDTI hired a former BRAC commissioner and a retired Air Force general to argue why BRAC should exclude the Hanscom and Natick facilities from its list of recommended closures.

The legislature added its weight to MassDTI’s argument by authorizing up to $ 261 million in bonds for constructing military housing and making other infrastructure improvements at both bases. The BRAC commission did not recommend closing Hanscom and the Natick facility.

HANSCOM AFB

Massachusetts’ strategy for preserving Bedford’s Hascom AFB emphasized how the base contributes to military-related research and development. The base was originally a civilian air field when the state transferred it to the Army Air Corp in 1941 to train fighter pilots. The Air Force, the Air Corp successor, used the base during the 1950s for air defense operations.

But the base’s role began to change when the Air Force teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop air defense technology. By 1974, military operations had ceased and the Massachusetts Port Authority operated and maintained the base as a regional civilian aviation facility.

MASS DTI

With a new round of military base closures and realignments set to start in 2005, the nonprofit Massachusetts High Technology Council launched MassDIT in 2003 to show how Hanscom AFB (and the U. S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick) contributes to the national defense and homeland security. The council created the initiative as a public-private partnership co-chaired by Senator Kennedy and Governor Romney. The initiative’s 33 other members include members of Congress, retired military officers, state officials, university presidents, business and union leaders, and the chief executive officers of several corporations, including Raytheon and Titan.

The initiative’s studies explained how the base is part of an “intellectual eco-system of academic institutions, laboratories, technology firms, military and other facilities all located in proximity to one another” that can not be reconstructured (Working to Preserve and Enhance the Missions of Hanscom AFB and Natick Soldier Systems Center, no date). Closing the base would disrupt a web of relationships that spawned integrated communications, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, the studies stated.

Mass DTI also hired outside experts to argue why BRAC should spare nontraditional bases like Hanscom and Natick. These were retired Air Force General Ronald Fogleman and the 1995 BRAC chairman, Alan Dixon. Both urged BRAC to consider sparing bases because they could grow to meet future military needs.

STATE INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDS

While Mass DTI showed how the Hanscom and Natick bases contributed to the national defense, the Massachusetts legislature authorized funding in February 2005 for infrastructure improvements at both bases. It authorized up to $ 242 million in bonds to expand the base and construct new housing for servicemen. It also authorized up to $ 19 million in bonds to expand the Natick facility.

JR: dw