WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The Air Force research unit developing electronic surveillance and tracking networks that will someday link various sensor devices on the ground, in the atmosphere and space for the military will be getting more room to work.
Officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base broke ground on Wednesday, July 1, for a $36 million project that will add offices, laboratories and a sensors testing range to the existing Air Force Research Laboratory sensors directorate building. It is to be ready for occupancy in April 2011.
It will make room for about 100 research jobs to be moved in 2011 from Rome, N.Y., and Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., for consolidation in the sensors directorate at Wright-Patterson. The project is part of $332 million in ongoing construction that will allow Wright-Patterson to absorb almost 1,200 jobs in sensors research, aerospace medicine research and other programs in a consolidation approved during the nation’s 2005 base realignment and closure review.
The expanded research capability will boost the Dayton area’s economy by encouraging growth in support businesses, officials said.
Dave Jerome, director of the AFRL’s sensors directorate, said the consolidation will improve efficiency and productivity by bringing together about 1,350 scientists, engineers and support personnel he supervises in long-term research projects. They work with Air Force leadership and other services to coordinate projects, he said.
“A lot of the stuff we work on is maybe 15, 20 years out from field use,” Jerome said.
The sensors directorate is developing “layered sensing,” a technology years away from field deployment, that will allow radar, electro-optical devices and other sensors to communicate with others to monitor large areas. The system would link sensors in inner and outer space, atop buildings and even mounted on U.S. troops’ helmets, Jerome said.
The directorate also worked with the Marine Corps to develop the Angel Fire aerial surveillance the Marines have used in the Middle East. The system uses aircraft-mounted cameras to scan large ground areas below.
Butt Construction Co. is the lead contractor on the sensors directorate expansion. It is one of six current projects that Butt Construction is doing at Wright-Patterson, including the biggest one, the $194.5 million Human Performance Wing complex being built by a joint venture of Butt and Archer Western Contractors Ltd. That project is about half completed and is ahead of schedule, Butt and Air Force officials said Wednesday.
Butt Construction also recently completed road and utilities improvements to support the Human Performance Wing project and relocated the base’s Gate 19B along National Road. The Dayton company, founded in 1927, has done projects large and small at Wright-Patterson since 1946, said Bill Butt, its president.
The government work is especially welcome because privately funded construction has slowed during the economic downturn, Butt said.
