Military and civilian personnel are scheduled to leave Suffolk or be transferred to another command in Hampton Roads in a year.

The same issue surfaced in Virginia Beach in 2005. That city reacted with a plan to keep the U.S. Navy’s air base, Naval Air Station Oceana, from leaving.

Suffolk is still reeling from the announcement by the Department of Defense to shutter the U.S. Joint Forces Command by next fall. Reactions have ranged from surprise to incredulity.

The loss could amount to a worst-case scenario of $1 billion in income and 6,000 civilian and military jobs.

Property owners are seeing empty space in the 1 million square feet occupied by contractors working for JFCOM and JFCOM itself.

Worse, they are wondering if they can backfill the space with tenants in a soft real estate market because of zero or declining job growth.

The two localities have a common thread: They are heavily dependent on defense dollars to drive the tax base.

But they diverge on the outcome.

Virginia Beach has managed to keep the dollars flowing through its economy while Suffolk officials are seeing the city’s economy tank – not good during an election year when four city council seats are up for grabs.

But Suffolk officials have formulated a plan with the slogan “reject, retain and replace.”

Suffolk City Council was scheduled to hear the plan to keep thousands of jobs and millions of dollars last week.

Because Virginia Beach took action, the Association of Defense Communities recognized the city with the Active Base Community award for its work to keep NAS Oceana at the association’s annual convention in San Francisco, Aug. 8-11.

The association, composed of communities where military bases are located, private contractors, real estate firms and developers, has 1,500 members and has existed for 30 years.

Previously, it went by the name of the National Association of Installation Developers.

The group and its members are all about keeping military bases and the incomes associated with the personnel attached to the bases. The group also works to redevelop areas that have lost a military base.

Tom Rumora, chairman of the 10-member awards committee, said this is the first time Virginia Beach received the award.

The association gets 30 to 40 applicants a year for the award, Rumora said, but it doesn’t hand out an award every year.

“We don’t take this lightly,” Rumora said. “You have to win on your merits. We are not obliged to give this award if they are not a meritorious candidate. It’s an honor. It’s not just a rubber stamp.

“We like communities that take action,” he said. “They didn’t just meet, they didn’t just talk and they didn’t just do reports. They took action.

“Virginia Beach has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they have decisive, extraordinary and compelling action,” he said.

Faced with losing NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach officials developed a plan to redevelop properties and relocate businesses that were prohibited within the accident zone of the base.

The city was faced with a possible loss of 16,000 jobs with a total payroll of more than $1.18 billion, producing more than $400 million each year in goods and services, according to figures supplied by Virginia Beach.

Basically, the city rezoned property, bought property and relocated businesses that didn’t conform to the regulations to another area of the city and enticed businesses that did conform to properties surrounding the air base.

Execution of the plan took money, though, exactly $16 million a year, half of which the state funded, with the city funding the other half.

Virginia Beach said it has bought or reached agreement to buy 447 dwelling units through its residential property acquisition program.

It has also eliminated 385 residential dwelling units in zones where homes are prohibited, APZ-1 and the Clear Zones.

It also launched YesOceana.com, a plan to relocate businesses to other areas of the city and conforming businesses to APZ-1.

The city is luring suitable firms with grants, waiver of a conditional use permit, a rebate on local business taxes and fees, and a partial exemption of property taxes.

Posted to Inside Business on September 3, 2010 by Philip Newswanger

For more on the relationship between Oceana and Virginia Beach from The Virginian-Pilot, click here.

Download the articles from the September 2010 issue of Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine:

• Part 1) Meet Hampton Roads:  Virginia’s hub of convenience, commerce, and coastal charms. History, commerce, military power, and hometown hospitality intersect in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Freedom was won here, and independence was conceived here. Rob Cross, Virginia Arts Festival’s Executive and Artistic Director, is featured as Hampton Roads’ very own music man.
• Part 2) Live:  From waterside condos to downtown Victorians, lifestyle choices abound.
• Part 3) Work:  A strong military presence sets the pace. Hampton Roads is at the forefront of the art-meets-science modeling and simulation industry, initially supported by the military and now heavily used in commercial transportation, medicine, and other fields. A hub for healthcare, too.
• Part 4) Play:  From boardwalks to Broadway, there’s no shortage of entertainment in Hampton Roads. The Sporting Life: Hampton Roads takes sports seriously. Passionate fans make up for the absence of a big-league franchise with their support for a wide range of collegiate and amateur athletics as well as minor league competition.
• Part 5) Eat:  Seafood naturally, but so much more.
• Part 6) Sleep:  The past never sleeps at these historic inns, but you can.

Link to more on “Meet Hampton Roads from the air“

From PBS NewsHour’s The Rundown, a Blog of News and Insight

September 2, 2010
By Dante Chinni

What the military giveth, the military can taketh away. It’s not a happy lesson, but it is one that many Military Bastions, counties around armed services installations, have learned in the recent years through rounds of base closings.

And it is a lesson that the 16-county region in southern Virginia known as Hampton Roads is confronting now.

The economy in Hampton Roads is diverse, pushed by multiple drivers including trade at the area’s massive ports and tourism on its beaches, but always underpinning it all has been a steady and substantial military presence. Four of the 16 counties in the region fall into Patchwork Nation’s Military Bastion category – including Norfolk, home to the Navy’s Second Fleet.

Now all of that is being thrown in the air after a string of announcements from the Pentagon that appear to point to a scaling down of much of the area’s military presence.

Since January, the region has been hearing about how it might lose one its carriers to Florida – meaning a possible loss of 11,000 jobs. In early August, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced plans to eliminate the Joint Forces Command based in the region – another 6,000 jobs hang in the balance there. And just recently came word that the Navy may consider “mothballing” the second fleet.

Add it all together and the impact is vast. The military has long been considered a key part of the three-legged stool that props up the region. The people of Hampton Roads are wondering how long that will continue to be the case – and whether that stool is going to get a bit wobbly.

A Stool with Two Legs

In some ways Hampton Roads is positioned better for cuts than other Military Bastions around the country. A stool with two legs is better than a stool with none. In some Military Bastions, big cuts in nearby bases can destroy a local economy.

Hopkinsville, Ky., for instance, relies so heavily on nearby Fort Campbell it’s hard to imagine what the economy would look like there without it. The manufacturing jobs that once helped push the area forward have long since dried up, as have the rail routes.

But no matter what the rest of the area economy looks like, Hampton Roads is not taking the news of its potential military departures lightly. Five different cities in the area quickly released resolutions protesting the Joint Forces elimination. Some cities are actively fighting the Joint Forces decision. Economic impact studies showed the area would be losing billions in revenue with the changes in mind.

The state of Virginia also quickly jumped in and Gov. Bob McDonnell announced the creation of a commission designed to expand the state’s defense and national security facilities.

The stakes in the proposed changes are much higher than the just military jobs. In the modern military, remember, contractors are an integral part of everything from maintenance to office work. The net impact of large cuts is sweeping.

The Politics of Utility and Austerity

That’s why, in some ways, the budget battles involving Military Bastions like Hampton Road are going to be fascinating to watch in the coming years as the national debt plays a large role in the national political dialogue.

The nation’s Military Bastions tend to be conservative bastions as well, solidly Republican. And as voices in the GOP increasingly argue for austerity, eventually the budget axe will fall on these communities driven, in many senses, by government spending.

In announcing the elimination of the Joint Forces command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates cited as one of the reasons “the culture of endless money that has taken hold” in the military.

And so in Hampton Roads and Military Bastions like it, the arguments are likely to begin, focusing on the need or utility of the items or forces being cut. No one has argued that a program that is wasteful, duplicative or unnecessary should be saved. And in Hampton Roads, the lines have already been drawn.

Rep. Randy Forbes, whose district encompasses some of the Hampton Roads, called the decision to eliminate the Joint Forces Command “further evidence of this administration allowing its budget for social change to determine defense spending.” The argument in other words is less about the need for the cuts than spending priorities.

The meaning? All the talk from politicians about needing to make cuts and trim back spending in Washington is going to face some serious hurdles. Austerity is always popular until it hits near home.

Military Bastions like Hampton Roads may find themselves with more reasons than other communities to be picky about what form of austerity they embrace.

Click HERE for a complete Hampton Roads Resource Page on Joint Forces Command with links to organizations such as the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, local and state resources such as Congressman Forbes webpage, regional strategies such as Vision Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Modeling and Simulation Strategy 2020, events such as MODSIM World 2010, JFCOM news and more…

On 8-9-10, Secretary of Defense Gates recommended closure of Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), headquartered in Hampton Roads. JFCOM develops and employs modeling and simulation tools, the centerpiece of joint training. Modeling and Simulation (M&S) refers to the process of developing a mathematical model of a real world process, such as the flow of containers through a port facility, and solving the model under different conditions. The information extracted from the model can be used to enhance the effectiveness of the real world process and increase efficiency and profitability.

M&S is not a military-only tool.

Regardless of the outcome of Sec. Gates’ recommendation, the region-wide comprehensive economic development strategy, Vision Hampton Roads, has a structure already in place to coordinate existing and future efforts to grow the M&S community in Hampton Roads.

Hampton Roads is one of the country’s three leading regions in M&S along with Orlando, FL and Huntsville, AL. The unique strength in the Hampton Roads region is in three areas:

1. M&S education from high school through PhD. The Hampton Roads region is the only place you will find that continuum of M&S education.
2. Training. Significant expertise exists in how to employ M&S to perform all types of training from the military to medical and healthcare.
3. Decision support command and control. The Hampton Roads region is set apart by its expertise in employing M&S to analyze complex problems and to help individuals or groups make better decisions because of the insight they gain from the models.

The Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) at Old Dominion University is a key contributor to this sector of the economy with the past help of JFCOM.

The following are on-going M&S diversification efforts in the region that deserve to be championed and supported:

• MODSIM World Conference & Expo, now in its fourth year and franchised in Canada, has seen a 25% annual growth and focuses on promoting M&S activity outside of DoD, encouraging the transfer of technology and information across domains.
• Senator Mark Warner’s M&S Taskforce has put a special focus on medical M&S for 2011.
• Hampton Roads M&S Strategy 2020 pays special attention to entrepreneurship, commercialization, research and development, expanding into new markets, educational linkages and leveraging unique assets.  The Strategy is designed to capitalize on, not rely on, existing DoD M&S work to expand and grow the industry base in Hampton Roads.
• Hampton Roads M&S Leadership Council was developed to coordinate the implementation of the M&S Strategy 2020 and has taken active steps to operate in-line with Vision Hampton Roads.
• Vision Hampton Roads specifically includes M&S as a cluster which deserves attention and support to continue its growth in the region as it presents tremendous opportunity to diversify the economy while providing clean, high-paying jobs.

A 2007 technology survey identified over 2,000 direct M&S jobs paying an average of $82,733 per year (more than double the region’s average salary) spread throughout the region, with nearly 60% on the Peninsula and 40% on the Southside. Although strongly supported by the military, jobs have expanded to transportation, port operations, education and the medical world.

The survey also noted many M&S research strengths in the region: ODU, Eastern VA Medical School, Hampton University, National Institute of Aeronautics, NASA Langley Research Center, Jefferson Lab, Norfolk State University and Christopher Newport University.

And, according to Virginia’s Economic Development Partnership, Virginia’s M&S industry employs 11,500 people in the private sector while government and military is estimated at another 2,900 people. The top two regions by employment are Northern Virginia (5,900) and Hampton Roads (5,200) and account for 97% of all M&S employment in Virginia.

So what is the region’s next step? Focus M&S efforts with the existing region-wide strategic plan already in place led by the Vision Hampton Roads Innovation Task Force (Dr. Joe Bouchard, Lead) and the Hampton Roads M&S Leadership Council (VMASC’s Dr. John Sokolowski, Chair) which aligns with designated community leaders in specific areas of interest (ex: higher education, healthcare) for implementation of Vision’s strategic actions.

Engage directly with the M&S community and learn more by attending the MODSIM World Conference and Expo, October 13-15, 2010, at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, http://ModSimWorldConference.com.

Sooner or later it was bound to happen, as even a hyperpower has limits. After nine years, the United States is reassessing its commitment to the longest war it has to date prosecuted. Monday’s announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates of budget cuts, a personnel freeze and the dissolution of the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) represents the beginning of a marked change in how America will protect itself and how it calculates priorities within our nation’s defense.

by Sebestyén L.V. Gorka posted on the New Atlanticist Policy and Analysis Blog on August 16, 2010

Coming as these decisions do a matter of days after the wholesale disclosure of classified information by a renegade website and the launch of a series of investigative reports by a national daily into waste and redundancy within the intelligence community, they will satisfy two different constituencies: those which favor a less activist national security sector and those who, whilst more hawkish of persuasion, support a leaner and more efficient national defense establishment.

However, the merits of Secretary Gates’ proposed austerity measures cannot be gauged in terms of dollars and cents alone. Any such large-scale alteration to how an administration invests in the security of the country must by its nature have doctrinal as well as operational consequences. Especially the decision that has been institutionally the easiest to focus upon: the dismantling of the four-star joint command in Norfolk, Va.

The creation 11 years ago, out of the former Atlantic Command, of a new organization that would serve the other regional combatants commands in promoting “jointness” — or the integration of military capabilities across all services: Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines— was closely connected to the sweeping reform of the U.S. military that occurred in the late 1980s. After several very exposed failures — most especially the disastrous attempt to rescue our hostages in Iran that was Operation Desert One — Congress mandated interoperability across all services through the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. This would lead to the creation of two non-regional commands: U.S. Special Operations Command and later U.S. Joint Forces Command.

Although at the time, such a congressional “intrusion” into the mechanics of the armed forces was resented by many in uniform, the results have been positive. Today an ambitious officer who wants to climb the rank structure to general or flag officer status must serve a joint, or “purple” tour (as it is called because this is the color one arrives at after all the services’ colors are mixed). He or she cannot stay safely within the culture of one military force but demonstrate familiarity and expertise in the ways of its sister services.

Although a child of the Cold War, this concept of jointness was only truly proven well after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the last 20 years, as the nation has deployed soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to highly complex theaters such as the Middle East, the Balkans and, after Sept. 11, 2001, into Central Asia, it has become obvious that the conventional ways of war no longer apply. With enemies that have no nation-state or national army, who wear no uniform or fail to follow the established laws of war, there is no room for classic divisions of labor established for an era in which the main forces of one nation would meet the main forces of another on the battlefield and fight until a clear victory was imposed by the one upon the other. Jointness may not be a concept found in the classic canons of strategic masters such as Carl von Clausewitz, but neither were such works written with today’s enemies in mind.

Today, not only is jointness needed more than ever, it should be a concept implemented across all departments of government, which have a role in national security. If one cannot become a general unless one has executed a purple tour, then likewise, one should not be able to become ambassador unless one has served in a military tour, or become a CIA head-of-station unless one has served in a stabilization mission. You don’t have to be a fan of nation-building to understand that the ability to work with other elements of government and to know their capabilities (and limitations) is an asset that will make the nation better able to cope with a most un-Clausewitzian world.

Secretary Gates is right to finally rein in the defense sector, especially given the slow rate of economic recovery we are witnessing. Nevertheless, of all the waste and redundancy that should be tackled first, the Joint Forces Command needn’t be the first. On the contrary, the secretary should hold up the concept of jointness as a model for his other Cabinet colleagues and convince the commander in chief that in an age in which we see the globalization and democratization of violence, the nation would be well-served by not just more purple within the armed services, but also by the institutionalization of a culture of “SuperPurple” across all the organs of American national security.

Our enemies already operate in a cross-cultural and post-conventional world. We should — in this — emulate them.

Futurists, visionaries, entrepreneurs and technologists will explore those questions at “Aviation Unleashed,” a three-day forum sponsored by NASA’s Langley Research Center (NASA LARC) and National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), both in Hampton, Virginia. The conference will be held at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, 1610 Coliseum Drive in Hampton, Oct. 18-20.

“The goal of Aviation Unleashed is to spark conversation and collaboration about what’s possible in aviation, given changes in society and advancements in technology,” said David Hinton, deputy director of Langley’s Aeronautics Research Directorate. “We have invited experts from private industry, government agencies and universities to share their visions of the future so we can work together to transform our aviation system to accommodate new flying vehicles, manned and unmanned.”

Some of the speakers expected to share ideas at the October conference include Peter Norvig, director of research at Google; futurist John Petersen, founder of the Arlington Institute; forecasting expert Marvin Cetron, president of Forecasting International; Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Bits and Atoms; Bill Halal, Professor of Science, Technology & Innovation at George Washington University and founder of TechCast, a virtual think tank; and visionary Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA Langley.

During Aviation Unleashed participants are expected to learn more about how video and tele-technology may shape travel and how advanced aircraft, made of new materials, propelled by innovative engines, some remotely piloted, will give people and goods efficient on-demand mobility – opening up new markets and missions. They’ll also get the chance to hear various future scenarios and how those scenarios could impact current aviation development.

The final day of the forum technology experts will lead breakout sessions so participants can envision what aviation could become and how technologies being created today will be able to lead to a revolution in access to the skies for civil, defense and security missions.

“This is an exciting opportunity for interested minds to listen and engage in the discussions about where the aviation industry is going and how we might get there,” said Calvin Lowe, vice president of research and program development at NIA.

For more information and to register for Aviation Unleashed, visit: http://www.NIAnet.org/Aviation-Unleashed.aspx

The region, which includes Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Newport News, saw total personal income rise 1.2 percent last year to $66.4 billion. On average, personal income dropped 2.3 percent in 52 metro areas of at least 1 million people.

The Washington, D.C., area also was one of the gainers. Its total personal income rose 1.1 percent to $309 billion. Personal income is defined by the government as income received by persons from all sources.

Richmond, the only other large Virginia metro region in the survey, saw total personal income drop 1.6 percent to $51 billion.

In another measurement of wealth, per-capita income, rose slightly last year in Hampton Roads and Washington: $39,674, up 1 percent, in Hampton Roads and $56,442, up 0.7 percent, in the Washington area. Richmond’s per-capita income declined 2.5 percent to $41, 242. Per-capita income is calculated by dividing total personal income in an area by its resident population.

In a wider Bureau of Economic Analysis survey of 366 metro areas, personal income declined in 223, increased in 134 and remained unchanged in nine.

The survey included seven metro areas in addition to Hampton Roads, Washington and Richmond.

Their estimates were:

• Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford: $4.5 billion in total personal income, up 0.7 percent; $28,197 in per-capita income, unchanged
• Charlottesville: $8.4 billion, down 0.2 percent; $42,857, down 1.1 percent
• Danville: $3.2 billion, up 1.9 percent; $30,471, up 2.3 percent
• Harrisonburg: $3.7 billion, up 3.1 percent; $30,795, down 0.8 percent
• Lynchburg: $8.2 billion, down 0.5 percent; $33,224, down 1.3 percent
• Roanoke: $11.5 billion, down 1 percent; $38,166, down 1.4 percent
• Winchester: $4.2 billion, down 0.1 percent; $33,568, down 1.3 percent.

From Virginia Business

From the BEA: WASHINGTON DC, August 9, 2010 – Personal income declined in 2009 in most of the nation’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Large MSAs. Among the 52 MSAs with a population of one million or more, only three had an increase in both net earnings and personal income in 2009 (Washington, D.C.; San Antonio, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Virginia). The biggest gains in compensation in these three MSAs were in the federal government (civilian and military combined). Private sector compensation declined in these three MSAs.

Read more at BEA’s website.

Newport News shipyard, nation’s largest, is one of Hampton Roads’ economic driving forces

The yard is Hampton Roads’ largest private employer, with about 20,000 workers, and is the nation’s sole maker of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It is one of two submarine builders.

On the banks of the James River on the tip of the Peninsula, the yard went into operation in 1886, founded by railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington as a sidelight to his coal operations. The yard started out building Navy and commercial ships and has built ships for World War I, World War II and all wars since.

It now focuses nearly exclusively on Navy vessels. The yard boasts one of the strongest cranes in the Western Hemisphere, a 1,050-ton gantry. More than 23 stories high, it has been a local landmark since 1975.

In a new venture, Northrop is partnering with French firm Areva on a new manufacturing facility that will eventually build parts for commercial nuclear reactors. The center is under construction in the north end of the shipyard.

Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman (soon moving corporate headquarters to Virginia) bought the yard in 2001. Other area shipyards include Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth and BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair in Norfolk.

Once Northrop Grumman Corp. completes its process of evaluating the future of its shipbuilding unit, the Newport News shipyard could find itself in a familiar position: on its own again.

The company is leaning toward spinning off its shipbuilding unit, but will still consider selling the business to a qualified private investor.

A spinoff would mean Northrop would break off its shipbuilding operations in Newport News and on the Gulf Coast to form a separate company with its own leadership. In a typical spinoff scenario, shareholders of the parent company would receive equity stakes in the newly formed company.

That’s what happened in Newport News in 1996, when Tenneco Inc. spun off Newport News Shipbuilding into an independent, publicly traded company. The yard remained on its own until 2001, when Northrop bought it for $2.6 billion.

The sale or spinoff of Northrop’s shipbuilding enterprise, which employs about 40,000 people (half of which are located in Hampton Roads) and builds the Navy’s most sophisticated ships, would likely require approval from the Defense Department.

Cmdr. Victor Chen, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, characterized Northrop’s move to seek alternatives for its shipbuilding unit as a “business decision.”

The shipbuilding industrial base “has to have adequate capability, adequate capacity and it has to have competition,” Chen said. “The decision Northrop Grumman is making is their own decision, but given that, we’re going to evaluate what happens in order to be able to affordably execute the shipbuilding plan.”

Mike Petters, the former top executive in Newport News, was tapped to lead Northrop’s unified shipbuilding division when Newport News and Gulf Coast operations merged in 2008. Since then, he’s spent considerable time trying to turn around Northrop’s floundering operations in Mississippi and Louisiana, which have never fully recovered since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region in 2005.

Excerpts from the Daily Press

This isn’t just a shipyard:
For 124 years, shipbuilding has been the lifeblood of Newport News

Former President George H.W. Bush, left, and his sons then-President George W. Bush and then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pose after the christening ceremony of the last Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, on Oct 7, 2006, at Northrop Grumman’s Newport News shipyard. (Daily Press file photo / October 5, 2006)

by Dave Fairbank, Daily Press

Newport News has been synonymous with shipbuilding for more than a century. The city’s signature shipyard has built hundreds of commercial and naval fighting vessels and remains the region’s largest private employer.

The shipyard is the most prominent presence on the Peninsula, from the 234-foot gantry crane — the strongest in the Western hemisphere — that dominates the downtown skyline to the more than 550 acres of property it occupies along the James River.

Hear from the workers themselves about the sweat, tears and pride that goes into building something as massive as an aircraft carrier… Dave’s story

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday he intends to close Norfolk-based Joint Forces Command over the next year, sending a shudder through the military and business communities in Hampton Roads.

In a press conference, a tough-talking Gates proposed other cuts as part of a broader effort to rein in military spending. It includes a 10 percent reduction next year in the Pentagon’s use of outside contractors and cutting the number of admirals and generals.

“I am determined to change the way this department has done business for a long time,” he said.

JFCOM, located in Norfolk and Suffolk, was established to train troops from different services to work, communicate and fight together.

It is one of the Defense Department’s 10 combatant commands. Its missions include experimentation, training and developing advanced warfighting concepts. Its 2010 operating budget is $704 million.

In addition to its headquarters in Norfolk, it operates the Joint Warfighting Center in northern Suffolk and has outposts in Newport News, Nevada and Florida. In 2007, it provided about 4,500 high-paying jobs and pumped about $365 million into the local economy according to Old Dominion University.

It is unclear just how many of those jobs would be lost or transferred out of the area. Gates said critical functions of JFCOM would be retained and reassigned elsewhere in the Defense Department.

When JFCOM was created, it meant an extra layer of bureaucracy, but Gates said that was understood at the time. The benefits of joint operations outweighed the costs.

“Since then, compelled by decades of operational experience, the U.S. military has largely embraced jointness as a matter of culture and practice,” Gates said.

So while training joint forces and creating joint doctrine are still valuable efforts, “they do not necessarily require a separate four-star combatant command,” he said.

As a nod to Virginia, Gates said the cuts could free up more funding for critical tasks like shipbuilding. Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Newport News shipyard is the state’s largest private industrial employer with more than 20,000 workers.

“If, as a result of these efforts, I’m able to add $1 (billion) to $2 billion to a Navy shipbuilding program of record, Virginia may well come out with more jobs than it loses,” Gates said.

Other news sources weigh in….

Suffolk News-Herald:  Bipartisan group blasts defense closure plan

Elected officials from the local, state and federal level were quick on Monday to react to a surprise announcement by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that he is moving ahead with a recommendation that the U.S. Joint Forces Command be closed.

“Why the huge rush?” McDonnell asked. “If it’s going to happen, let it be through BRAC [the Base Realignment and Closure commission].”

In fact, representatives said, none of the checks and balances that are part of the normal BRAC process seem to have been in effect when the DBB conceived its recommendation.

“This was a decision, apparently, of the secretary and a handful of people,” the governor said. “This is not the way these decisions should be made.”

Gates refused to talk to congressmen about the decision, Forbes added, despite the fact that the most recent quadrennial defense review never mentioned problems with JFCOM’s mission. Read more…

Daily Press:  JFCOM closing would ripple through Hampton Roads economy

On the bright side, high-tech industry has worked to expand applications beyond defense

The impact on the local economy of losing JFCOM “is absolutely monumental,” said Frank Roberts, executive director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance. Read more…

Richmond Times-Dispatch:  Politicians decry plan to close Hampton Road’s command

(Senator Mark) Warner, in a written statement, said the Joint Forces Command promotes cooperation among competing military services and investment in high-tech businesses that support the agency.

“In the business world, you sometimes have to spend money in order to save money,” he said. Read more…

NY Times:  Pentagon Plans Steps to Reduce Budget and Jobs

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that he would close a military command, restrict the use of outside contractors and reduce the number of generals and admirals across the armed forces as part of a broad effort to rein in Pentagon spending.

The potential savings Mr. Gates outlined are likely to be relatively modest in the context of a total Pentagon budget, including war fighting costs, projected to top $700 billion next year. The most significant step — in symbol and in substance — was his plan to close the military’s Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

The command includes about 2,800 military and civilian positions supported by 3,000 contractors at an annual cost of $240 million. Its responsibilities, which include managing the allocation of global forces and running programs to press the armed services to work together on the battlefield, will be reassigned, mostly to personnel working under the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. Read more…

Link to documents from the Defense Business Board

Photo from the NY Times: Getty Images, Chris Somodevilla