Officials in the Dayton region have been eagerly awaiting the shift of aerospace medicine, sensors and related research programs as a long-term catalyst for economic development. The transfers, which will bring about 1,280 positions to Wright-Patt by September, were ordered as part of the U.S. base realignment and closure (BRAC) decisions made in 2005.
The bulk of the move-ins is too occur in spring and summer. That includes many of the affected jobs in the aerospace medicine school in San Antonio, Texas; sensors missions at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., and in Rome, N.Y.; a human-performance mission in Mesa, Ariz., and the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory from Pensacola, Fla.
Only about 60 truckloads of equipment, out of an expected 250, have arrived at Wright-Patt so far, said Daniel France, Wright-Patt’s BRAC director. Radar units have been trucked in from their former Rome, N.Y., home and been set up at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s sensors directorate at Wright-Patt.
The $332 million project to make room for the arrivals includes new construction and renovation totaling about 20 football fields of space. It is Wright-Patterson’s largest construction project since World War II.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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