Air Force and local officials commemorated the transfer of the final portion of the former England AFB, La., to the authority overseeing its commercial development. Robert Moore, USAF’s property agency director, participated in the Dec. 8 ceremony celebrating the handover of the final 628 acres of land that took place earlier this fall for use by the England Airpark and Community, which is already a successful industrial development estate and civil airport, reported Central Louisiana’s Town Talk. Then home to A-10 ground-attack aircraft, England closed in June 1992, under the 1988 round of BRAC. The base’s runways and flight facilities have since blossomed into Alexandria International Airport, while the refurbished former base hospital may soon become a regional health care center, according to the newspaper. (England Airpark website)
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…