Kirtland Air Force Base: gaining on the future

New Mexico Business Journal, Sept, 1993 by William Diven

WITHIN ITS 52,000 acres, Kirtland Air Force Base not only services the nation's defense network -- but it's a driving money machine of immense power in central New Mexico.

Even in a time of defense cutbacks and uncertain budgets, Kirtland's military and civilian work force rivals the population of a lot of New Mexico towns.

By the end of the current federal fiscal year, the men and woman at Kirtland will have earned nearly $800 million, roughly equal to the gross receipts of all New Mexico livestock producers.

And when contract work for the Department of Energy is included, Kirtland's annual impact on the state's economy swells to $3.2 billion and credit for creating more than 20,000 additional jobs mostly in and around the Duke City.

Yet two questions frequently arise these days about the base and its scientific tenants like Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory.

How will military downsizing affect Kirtland's Air Force work, and can its research side founded on nuclear weaponry survive the end of the Cold War?

While those questions remain open, a new element joined the equation late in July when the Department of Energy awarded the contract to manage Sandia Labs to Martin Marietta.

The $10 billion aerospace and defense giant takes over Oct. 1, succeeding AT&T which had operated the lab since it became independent from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1949.

Martin Marietta officials promptly announced a major effort to spin off defense technology into the commercial marketplace through a new subsidiary, Technology Venture Corporation.

The company says that work will be centered in a new $5 million building in the University of New Mexico Research Park and will be underwritten initially by $4.5 million of its own money and another $30 million in capital from other sources.

Martin Marietta is touting its economic development programs as emphasizing diversity especially in placing business with other firms.

As part of the bidding process for the Sandia contract, Martin Marietta also committed itself to supporting the community through scholarships, charitable contributions and other work.

While some of Sandia's 8,400 employees cited layoffs at Martin Marietta's existing Albuquerque plant in expressing fears for their own jobs, company officials said no layoffs are anticipated. The earlier layoffs related to U.S. Postal Service contracts to manufacture mail-sorting equipment.

For the moment, the comings and goings of military units seem to be balancing either other out. Consolidations with the Air Force's new Air Education and Training Command, for example, could bring 200 more people to the 542nd Crew Training Wing which already employs 1,300.

Operational control of the 542nd passed to the new command in July. Also announced earlier this year was a reorganization of the New Mexico Air National Guard based at Kirtland which will cost 10 jobs.

Founded as a training base during World War II, Kirtland became a testing center after the war and continued to grow through the Cold War. Kirtland's major role centered on developing aircraft systems for delivering nuclear weapons.

In 1971, Kirtland merged with Sandia Base, a separate facility opened in 1942 which evolved into a center coordinating military nuclear activities.

The base today supports almost 180 tenant organizations from civilian contracts and all branches of the service.

"The Air Force appears to be stable for the moment from the New Mexico point of view," says U.S. Rep. Steve Schiff, R-NM. "I see the major legislative debate in the future on the national laboratories.

Schiff says there is a broad agreement that military research should be reduced while boosting funding for non-military work and technology transfer.

The issue is where the national labs -- Sandia and Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California -- fit in. The political debate in some ways is less Republican versus Democrat than it is a geographical rivalry -- New Mexico versus other states, says Schiff.

"The national labs should be used in what (Sandia) president Al Narath called their core technologies where those core technologies related to the civilian economy," Schiff says. "Examples would be advanced materials and super computing. This is not suggesting the national labs can be all things to all people, but if they have the expertise, we should use it."

The competing point of view argues labs built on nuclear deterrence can now be given a reduced military mission and simply downsized.

Already in the congressional mill is a bill introduced by a California congressman which attempts to set out missions for the labs, but also orders the Secretary of Energy to consolidate nuclear weapons work at one of the three laboratories.

Early betting is on Los Alamos for that role although officials have indicated they would prefer retaining assignments in weapons research while letting someone else manufacture the finished weapons.

"Why would a California congressman sponsor a bill to reduce government spending while increasing it in New Mexico?" Schiff says. "Part of the answer could be in the expectation non-military research would go to Lawrence Livermore."