The Air Force signed a low-cost, long-term lease agreement on Sept. 24 to move into a former General Motors plant south of Tinker AFB, Okla., and establish a new aerospace facility there. “This type of transaction is a first for the Air Force and is truly innovative,” said Debra Walker, USAF’s deputy assistant secretary for logistics, in the service’s Sept. 25 announcement. Under the terms of the deal, Oklahoma County is making 430 acres of land formerly occupied by GM available to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center to establish the Tinker Aerospace Complex. “The new complex will reduce the amount of projected military construction projects needed to replace substandard facilities and provide a much better quality of life for depot maintenance personnel,” said Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley. It will also enable Tinker to attract new depot work. The land includes 3.8 million gross square feet of real property, of which 3.5 million square feet is industrial and administrative space. The State of Oklahoma and Oklahoma County purchased the land from GM through a bond election in May.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.