Cyber Command: The Competition

There is stiff competition for the permanent home of the Air Force Cyber Command. Here is a breakdown of the competition to Barksdale.

• Yuba City, California, is 170 miles from Silicon Valley, America's technological heartland.
• Hanscom Air Force Base, 15 miles northwest of Boston, is convenient to Route 128 high-tech firms, Harvard and MIT. It provides worldwide support for the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center.
• Hampton, Virginia, is only 200 miles from the Pentagon and the nerve centers of U.S. government. It is home to the Air Combat Center and the Air Force Global Cyberspace Integration Center.
• Pennsylvania would like to host Cyber Command, but no specific location has yet been proposed. Pennsylvania has several Air National Guard installations, but no remaining Air Force bases.
• Michigan would like to host Cyber Command, but no specific location has yet been proposed. Michigan has several Air National Guard installations, but its Air Force bases closed in the 1990s.
• Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas is the home of Combat Airlift.
• Located in southern Illinois near St. Louis, Scott Air Force Base is home to the Air Mobility Command and the Air Force Communications Agency. It's crawling with geeks.
• Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, is the home of Air University, the Air Force's center for professional military education.
• Keesler Air Force Base of Biloxi, Mississippi, has a strong tradition of electronics and radar operations. It's a major meteorology center, too: The next storm it tracks could be a network one.
• Megan Lucas, president of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce in Nebraska, told Wired.com three reasons to pick her city: "We have the infrastructure, dual power grids and dark fiber."
• U.S. Rep. (D-Texas) Ciro Rodriguez explains the high-tech acumen of his community: "The robust cyber-security research community ... has transformed the Alamo City into a national leader on the subject."
• Albuquerque, New Mexico, is home to one of the U.S. Air Force's largest bases. Centrally located and close to high-tech research facilities, it's well-equipped to host Cyber Command.
• Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain, constructed 600 meters underground, is the former home of NORAD. Currently on warm standby, it could be the perfect place for the Air Force Cyber Command headquarters.
• Hill Air Force Base is an Air Force Materiel Command base located near Ogden, Utah, about 30 miles from Salt Lake City.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/02/cyber_command
http://www.afcyber.af.mil/