N.E. lawmakers vow to fight base closings

January 27, 2012|Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

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Another casualty was the Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine and its nearly 7,000 workers, and the Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut, with more than 8,000 employees, narrowly escaped closure.

Only a handful of active-duty military installations remain in the region, most of them relatively small. They include the Army’s Natick Labs and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee remains one of the few existing reserve installations.

A former Pentagon official involved in the last round of closures said yesterday the risk is pronounced for the region. Hanscom could be consolidated with other weapons development centers around the country, said the former official, who asked not to be identified because he may be called upon to play a role in a new base closure process.

Westover Air Reserve Base could also be affected. The Pentagon said yesterday it plans to retire some older C-5 cargo planes, which operate out of the base.

“This will take an intensive effort,’’ said Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, who convened a meeting of New England officials last year to talk about the potential for base closures. “You have to get way ahead of things with a game plan.’’

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.