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Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - by Brendan Lynch Mass High Tech
With a well-developed tech sector, world-class universities and nonprofit research firms, Massachusetts would seem like a no-brainer location for the U.S. Air Force Cyberspace Command. So naturally, the command was placed under the 8th Air Force and based temporarily at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La.
Outgoing Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative executive director Alan Macdonald would like to change at least part of that. Macdonald had been organizing an effort to attract programs from the cyber command to Hanscom Air Force Base since the command was announced last year.
"If we can get a center up here to provide a hub of cyber R&D for the Air Force, this is a tremendous opportunity," said Macdonald, who left MassDTI at the end of 2007. "This is the future of warfare."
Macdonald said that Massachusetts had the "full spectrum of capabilities" necessary for the work the command will perform -- private, nonprofit, academic and military. Among the potential local beneficiaries are MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, BBN Technologies in Cambridge, and BAE Systems Inc. in Burlington.
"The greater (Route) 128 region has one of the strongest clusters relative to anywhere in the country," he said.
The cyber domain includes "all the places an electron can travel," according to an Air Force statement, which also noted the 9/11 attackers used global positioning systems and the Internet to prepare for, and carry out, the attack.
"Tremendous damage could be caused from a laptop," said Macdonald.
The Air Force and the local business and research communities can both benefit from bringing cyber functionalities to Hanscom, Macdonald said.
"The opportunity on both sides is how to leverage pockets of real-world experience in the cyber community," he said.
Macdonald said the command will be an important facet of national security and a big opportunity for the local economy.
"It's an important ground floor for what could potentially be the Manhattan Project for the next generation," he said.
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