'New' Otis could get intel unit:

F 15
Originally uploaded by davidjdiller.

From the Cape Cod Times:
May 10 2006

By KEVIN DENNEHY
and AMANDA LEHMERT
STAFF WRITERS
"The fuzzy picture of Otis Air National Guard Base's future became somewhat clearer yesterday, nine months after it was spared from the chopping block.

Otis Air National Guard Base was targeted for closure last year, but a review panel spared the base.

An F-15 fighter squadron will move from the base next year to a facility in Western Massachusetts.

F-15s from the Cape base were the first to respond after the terrorist attack on New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

Guard leaders say an intelligence mission, as yet unspecified, could help overcome job losses.

A likely new mission at Otis could involve interpreting data from unmanned surveillance aircraft.

The military has made increased use of Predator and Global Hawk aircraft in the war against terrorism.

Any new mission would begin around October 2007, in concert with the move of the F-15 squadron.

More than 200 of the Cape-based soldiers whose jobs will vanish when the base's F-15 fighter jets leave the Cape will be absorbed into a new Guard intelligence unit, state Guard leaders announced.

The so-called Distributed Ground Station unit's mission will include the processing and distribution of intelligence data collected by, among other sources, unmanned surveillance vehicles." More...