Global Strike win likely means Cyber Command loss

It may be Global Strike for Barksdale Air Force Base, but it is almost certainly strike out for the gamble Bossier City and Parish made for the service’s Cyber Command.

Last week it was announced that Barksdale would get this new command, meant to consolidate the service’s nuclear component and bringing with it the likelihood of up to a thousand personnel. U.S Rep. John Fleming lauded the decision as the Air Force knowing “by far Barksdale was the best candidate.”

But internal documents of the decision scoring process in fact showed Barksdale was just runner-up, considerably, to Offutt AFB in Bellevue, NE, longtime home of the Strategic Air Command. Nonetheless, Barksdale won out and the reason was perhaps the presence of SAC at Offutt, as the Air Force typically does not like to group major commands when possible.

While this preference may have brought Global Strike to Barksdale, it may now cost it Cyber Command since it appears to have the former. Frankly, given the resources locally in the realm of technology it would be surprising that Barksdale would be at the top or even runner-up against almost two dozen other installations (although the Air Force has talked about parceling out pieces of Cyber Command so even if it doesn’t land the command it may get a piece of the action).

If so, the gamble that the state and local governments took in shoveling $108 million of taxpayers’ heard-earned wealth towards the building of the Cyber Innovation Center near the base has become even less likely to pay off. Cyber Command was talked of as a kind of anchor tenant to attract other firms and without it chances are noticeably reduced that any significant presence of them will coalesce there, leaving a microscopic return on a huge investment that could have been better utilized in other ways.

As recent election results showed, so far Bossier City’s citizenry remain unperturbed in large enough number to make city politicians pay for this crapshoot with the people’s money. After an official announcement of Cyber Command’s placement comes in about a month, those reelected may be thankful the electoral calendar works as it does, and Bossier Parish police jurors may start to sweat quite a bit with 2010 elections looming.