Defense industry leaders and political officials unveiled a plan this past week to preserve the $9 billion Michigan defense industry yet none of the 17 recommendations in the report specifically refer to the state’s most valuable military base, the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.
The “Protect and Grow” initiative calls for the addition of a missile defense system at the Fort Custer Training Center in Battle Creek, the creation of an “innovation center” at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren (aka the Army’s Tank Automotive Command, or TACOM, headquarters) and pursuing federal funding for a major upgrade of a non-military site, the Soo Locks, due to the importance of the U.P. shipping passage to national security.
But Selfridge did not make the list of 17, though the most basic goal of this plan is to fend off any future attempts by Congress to close military bases in Michigan.
Located on Lake St. Clair in Harrison Township, Selfridge is unique within the Defense Department as it is a home to every branch of the military, the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security and a high-tech facility that works with agencies such the U.S. Border Patrol. The base will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.
The Protect and Grow plan was announced at the Mackinac Policy Conference in typical dramatic fashion, as things are done on the island, by (at right) Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Congresswoman Candice Miller and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley.
Half of the representation on the stage was from Macomb County because about two-thirds of the Michigan defense industry and its 105,000 jobs lie within Macomb County.
It seems unlikely that there was a conscious attempt by any of the players involved in this initiative to consciously snub Selfridge. It might be that, to gain widespread traction, the intent was to make sure the plan did not focus too much on Macomb County.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC, located on the TACOM campus) signed the cooperative agreement. The report was initiated by the Michigan Defense Center, which is also located in Macomb County, in Sterling Heights.
If, as Stabenow and Miller said at the Mackinac unveiling, the focus is on future Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations from the Pentagon, it has to be acknowledged that Selfridge has been on the BRAC radar for two decades. The Michigan congressional delegation has managed to keep Selfridge safe from closure – and Congress has blocked any BRAC proposals for 2017 – but it would be foolish not to assume that Selfridge will not show up on a proposed closure list sometime soon.
After all, much of the base’s military operations center on the A-10, an aircraft which the Air Force has been trying to eliminate for several years.
Past BRAC recommendations led to closing Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Iosco County and K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base near Marquette. A Selfridge closure would be a major blow to the state, and to Macomb County in particular.
The 3,600-acre military installation employs more than 4,000 full-time and part-time civilian and military personnel. The numerous missions Selfridge units have flown in the Middle East and Europe in recent years shows the value the facility has among the Pentagon brass. And The base is credited with pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy annually.
Those numbers dwarf the economic stats associated with the Battle Creek Air National Guard Base, Fort Custer, the Camp Grayling Joint Military Training Center, and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.
During World War II, Michigan, and the Detroit area in particular, was dubbed the “Arsenal of Democracy” as factories produced military tanks and planes at an astounding rate. Now, Protect and Grow refers to Michigan as the “Arsenal of Innovation” for the armed services, with an emphasis on the high-tech side of war fighting, such as autonomous vehicles and cyber operations.
Let’s hope that in the process of leaping forward, those guiding the state’s defense industry do not leave behind Selfridge and its 100 years of history.
Aerial photo/Michigan Air National Guard
