Air Force military and civilian officials presented their plan for shifting aerospace medicine functions from Brooks City-Base, Tex., to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, to some Dayton, Ohio, folks on Monday, reports the Dayton Daily News. BRAC 2005 directed the closure of Brooks which has served as USAF’s center for aerospace medical research and housed the School of Aerospace Medicine. The Air Force now plans to create an Institute of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patt, which also is home to Air Force Research Lab’s Human Effectiveness Directorate. In addition, Wright-Patt will absorb the 311th Human Systems Group from Brooks and AFRL’s Sensors Directorate operations from Rome, N.Y., and Hanscom AFB, Mass. Base officials say they are planning to add more than one million square feet in new construction and renovation over the next five years at an estimated cost of $370 million.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…