Key members of San Antonio’s congressional delegation sent a letter to the U.S. Air Force on Friday urging it to consider Port San Antonio’s offer to build it a new headquarters for the 16th Air Force.
“We write to express our strong support for Port San Antonio’s efforts to build a new consolidated campus for the 16th Air Force (AFCYBER), its associated missions and partner agencies,” stated the June 28 letter signed by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar.
Doing so “has the potential to not only save the Air Force significant money, but will also result in a state-of-the-art facility for our warfighters delivered more expeditiously than traditional delivery methods,” the letter states.
The letter praises the Air Force for “recognizing the need for innovative solutions to its infrastructure needs,” and its willingness to consider using a type of agreement between the military and local governments in a novel way to get the project built.
Castro told the San Antonio Report Monday that the future of the country’s national security “will depend on the investments we make in cybersecurity today.”
Port San Antonio’s proposal, he continued, “will provide the modern, secure, and comfortable facility that our Airmen deserve while bringing some of the [Department of Defense]’s brightest minds together at the heart of San Antonio’s innovation hub.”
Growing cyber forces
Port San Antonio CEO Jim Perschbach, who made the unsolicited pitch to the Pentagon last year, said he appreciated that the letter offers bipartisan support for the proposal, which he believes could save taxpayers as much as $1 billion and be completed years sooner than if the military constructed it.
“We have been tremendously, tremendously happy about the level of support we’ve gotten,” he said.
Perschbach hopes to head back to Washington D.C. this month to meet again with military and elected officials.
The Air Force did not immediately respond to emailed questions on Monday, but a spokeswoman told the San Antonio Express-News that “all appropriate stakeholders” are reviewing the proposal.
The Air Force’s consideration comes as its cyber forces are growing in size and importance. In February, the Air Force announced that the 16th Air Force would be elevated to command status in recognition of the “rapidly evolving character of war.”
Meanwhile, members of the House Armed Services Committee are seeking a study on whether the U.S. should stand up a new, separate military service branch focused on cyber. Interest in creating such a force increased following a March report urging the creation of a 10,000-person cyber force.
Perschbach said regardless of whether that happens, “they’re still going to need facilities that meet the mission, and … that provide the connectivity to the private sector and the academic and research capabilities.”
Growing connections
Those connections are paramount to Perschbach’s vision for the Port, and he sees additional opportunity to create those connections outside of building a new headquarters for Air Forces Cyber.
He envisions being able to build a child care center, for example, that could serve military dependents along with children of those who work at the many private sector companies on campus, plus members of the community.
Not only could such a center reduce costs for the military, he said, “You’re now creating an equality of opportunity in the educational offering, and [in] how people start to get to know each other and break down boundaries.”
Having the community, military and private sectors using the same day care, working out at the same fitness center and stopping by the same grocery store after work are all ways to create those connections, he said. “And that accelerates innovation.”
Perschbach has pitched using what’s known as an intergovernmental support agreement to build a secure headquarters for Air Forces Cyber on the Port. Such agreements are typically used by the military to outsource services local governments can provide at a savings, such as road maintenance and 911 services.
He said thus far, the Air Force has expressed more comfort in using such an agreement for the first phase of what he has suggested be a two-phase process: a pre-development agreement that would allow the Port to solicit designs and develop a budget.
That process could take as little as 18 months, he has said — and even if the Air Force chose to let the Port only do the predevelopment work, it could still save millions and dollars and cut years off the process.
And there are potentially other ways the Air Force could partner with the Port on a future headquarters, he said. “I don’t think they’re as attractive, but they exist.”
