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By Patrick Ball/Staff Writer
Concord - Massachusetts has lobbied to make Hanscom Air Force Base one of 15 sites the U.S. Air Force is considering as a permanent home for its AFCYBER Command.
“It is my job to tell the Air Force our ability to absorb the mission, and I think we can do it,” said Col. Thomas J. Schluckebier, the 66th Air Base Wing commander.
AFCYBER Command will restructure the Air Force so as to better manage its cyber resources, allowing the Air Force to continue to afford airmen the same security in cyberspace that they have on the ground. Currently a provisional command, AFCYBER has an Oct. 1 deadline for having Initial Operations Capability (IOC).
“Right now, most people assume that on our computers we have the same level of protection that we do in the air domain. I think we have that now,” said Col. Leslie Blackham, of the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base. “Given the emerging hacking threats and nation threats to cyber, we want to make sure we can continue to do that.”
Blackham said the restructuring would be achieved through “consolidating organizationally a lot of our communications squadrons and other things under one command.”
The interim cyberspace command location is Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La. Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia are all also in the running to become the AFCYBER headquarters.
A decision from the Air Force on where to site the headquarters of its cyberspace commend center is expected by year’s end.
Retired Brig. Gen. Donald J. Quenneville, who in January was named executive director of the Defense Technology Initiative (DTI), said the intellectual capital of the region, both in terms of high tech companies and world-renowned colleges and universities, makes Hanscom a prime candidate to be the cyberspace command center.
Another reason Quenneville cited is Hanscom’s Electronic Systems Center, which develops and acquires systems used by the Air Force and other Department of Defense operational users.
“To me, it’s a natural fit,” he said. “It’s an exciting prospect.”
Schluckebier believes Hanscom could support the 400 to 800 new jobs becoming the cyberspace command center would entail, citing as evidence the Secretary of Defense’s recommendation during the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process that Hanscom bring in three large groups with numbers far greater than any AFCYBER personnel projections.
“It’s not so much a question of whether Hanscom could handle the mission, but how much it would cost and if we could afford to do it,” Schluckebier said.
Hanscom is already the state’s ninth largest employer, with around 9,000 direct jobs, and 26,000 jobs supported by base activity. Schluckebier said the base has facilities today that could handle part of the requirement, but renovations and freeing up space eventually would be required.
“I think Hanscom has a long history of doing great things and what the Air Force has asked of it,” Schluckebier said. “It’s a great community and there are great people.”
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