Air Force Research Laboratory brings jobs and opportunities to the Dayton region Published Oct. 24, 2007 By Phil Peppler Air Force Research Lab BRAC Office WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Between now and 2011, the Air Force Research Laboratory will bring many jobs and opportunities to the Dayton area. As a part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure, AFRL will organize and construct new facilities at Wright-Patterson AFB that will become Centers of Excellence for Human Performance and Sensors. Estimates to construct new facilities for the new 711 Human Performance Wing and Sensors Directorate are around $320 million. A $13 million contract was recently awarded to Butt Construction Company of Dayton to begin utilities and road work in preparation for the massive Human Performance complex, with construction expected to begin next summer. A $40 million addition to the Sensors complex will begin a year later. In addition to providing infrastructure upgrades to Wight-Patterson AFB, the new facilities will offer state-of-the-art laboratory, classroom and office space for as many as 1,400 military, civilian and contractor jobs. The Human Performance Wing will present many opportunities due to its organizational consolidation of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Air Force Institute of Operational Health and the 311th Human Systems Wing's Performance Enhancement Directorate, all from Brooks City-Base, Texas, with AFRL's Human Effectiveness Directorate. The consolidation under AFRL eventually could yield an additional 473 military, 315 civilian and a corresponding number of contractor jobs to the Dayton area. The Sensors Directorate will add an additional 24 military and 136 civilian positions. In addition, the USAFSAM will bring more than 6,000 aerospace medicine students to the Dayton region yearly. The new HPW will perform research, teaching and consultation in a "university model" environment under AFRL. The wing will contain staff elements such as financial management, contracting, operations and planning. USAFSAM conducts the entire entry-level officer and enlisted team aerospace specialties of bioenvironmental engineering, public health and aerospace physiology. Specialized training is provided, usually at the graduate-level, for flight surgeons, flight nurses, bioenvironmental engineers, aerospace physiologists, public health officers and enlisted professionals. Sister service and international aeromedical specialists receive basic and advanced training in many areas of study. The Human Effectiveness Directorate is the leader in the science and technology of maximizing Airmen decision-making and performance in the global decision environment through research, demonstration and transition of leading-edge human performance methods. Also joining with the HPW at Wright-Patterson AFB from Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fla., is the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, creating a true Center of Excellence for Human Performance. AFRL's Sensors Directorate innovates a full range of affordable air and space sensors networked to the warfighter that assure a complete and timely picture of the battlespace, precision engagement of threats and survivability of friendly forces. During the BRAC consolidation, a Center of Excellence for Sensors will be established at Wright-Patterson with world-class facilities and laboratories for the innovation of a broad spectrum of sensor technologies. By BRAC law, the Human Performance and Sensors Centers of Excellence must come together by Sept 15, 2011. Missions from closing locations will begin moving into new facilities at Wright-Patterson early in 2011, with those systems and devices requiring certification being relocated and installed first. History suggests that many of the scientists and engineers from the closing and realigned locations likely will not make the transition to Ohio, presenting a challenge for AFRL but a significant opportunity for future scientist, engineer and staff positions. In the future, AFRL will recruit at all levels, from college undergraduates to senior personnel, with the goal of creating a new and diverse workforce of the future for AFRL and the Air Force. Many of the job opportunities at AFRL will become available in 2010.