Air Force military and civilian officials presented their plan for shifting aerospace medicine functions from Brooks City-Base, Tex., to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, to some Dayton, Ohio, folks on Monday, reports the Dayton Daily News. BRAC 2005 directed the closure of Brooks which has served as USAF’s center for aerospace medical research and housed the School of Aerospace Medicine. The Air Force now plans to create an Institute of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patt, which also is home to Air Force Research Lab’s Human Effectiveness Directorate. In addition, Wright-Patt will absorb the 311th Human Systems Group from Brooks and AFRL’s Sensors Directorate operations from Rome, N.Y., and Hanscom AFB, Mass. Base officials say they are planning to add more than one million square feet in new construction and renovation over the next five years at an estimated cost of $370 million.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.