Officials at Travis AFB, Calif., have shelved plans for now to solicit ideas to develop a 19-megawatt solar energy project on the base’s 205-acre Cypress Lakes Golf Course. “The business case for the project was strong, but recreation facilities like the golf course have value for our Team Travis family beyond financial considerations and we must look at the whole picture when making these decisions,” said Col. James Vechery, boss of Travis’ 60th Air Mobility Wing, in a base release Tuesday. The project was conceived in partnership with the Air Force Real Property Agency under the Defense Department’s enhanced use lease program, which allows installations to lease non-excess real property to public or private developers. AFRPA and Travis representatives had presented the concept to would-be developers in November.
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…