The government is setting aside nearly $30 million to strengthen a key intelligence operation at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Ohio lawmakers have announced $29.5 million for the building of a "Foreign Material Exploitation (FME)" facility for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) headquartered on the base, which is the region's and Ohio's largest single-site employer.
Foreign material exploitation involves studying the arms or equipment capabilities of foreign armed forces. The idea is to determine if the technology is useful for the U.S. and how to defeat that technology.
"It is analyzing," Michael Gessel, vice president, federal government programs for the Dayton Development Coalition, said of FME work. "It does reverse-engineering."
"FME at NASIC is about dissecting foreign air, space and cyberspace equipment that our U.S. forces might find on the battlefield in the future," Col. Leah Lauderback, NASIC commander, said in a statement. "This facility will give us an ability to continue this mission in the future as weapon systems become more and more advanced."
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, is chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces. "Today's announcement is a huge win for NASIC, Wright-Patt and Dayton as it reaffirms our community's place as a national leader in foreign aerospace intelligence gathering and dissemination," Turner said in a statement.
NASIC has about 3,000 military and civilian employees and a budget of some $350 million. The new facility will cover 58,000 square feet, an announcement from the base said.
Turner said he authored legislative language for fiscal year 2015 that "demonstrated the urgent need for this new facility and encouraged the Air Force to move ahead with the project."
"The work done by the men and women of NASIC is a key piece of the broader intelligence community and its success is vital to U.S. national security," Turner said.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, whose office said he, too, pursued the project's funding, welcomed the news.
"NASIC is a premier defense intelligence agency with a historic legacy in Ohio," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. "This new investment will further strengthen NASIC's capability to provide cutting-edge research on the next generation of foreign aerospace and weapon system capabilities. This new infusion of federal resources comes on top of the outstanding civilian and military personnel already working at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base."
NASIC has weathered budget cuts even as demand for the agency's work has grown, officials have said. The center's newly posted commander, Col. Leah G. Lauderback, has said she will assess any changes that may be needed at the organization.
The Dayton Development Coalition welcomed the announcement.
"The Foreign Materiel Exploitation building is important for protecting our national defense as well as supporting the future of NASIC's operations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base," Jeff Hoagland, the coalition's president and chief executive, said in a coalition statement. "The Air Force and Congress recognized the urgency of moving forward with the building by approving it under a rarely used law for emergency military construction."
According to a March 2013 Defense News account, NASIC "determines many of the requirements of the Air Force, dictating which radar system, which plane, which anti-aircraft missile, the Defense Department should try to buy or steal so it can learn to defend against it."
