Fairchild Air Force Base says it plans to develop a 12,200-square-foot munitions-maintenance administration building near the munitions-storage area on the south side of the base.


The single-story, brick building is expected to cost up to several million dollars to construct, and work on it should get under way in the fall of 2003, says Maj. Perryn Ashmore, a base spokesman.


The new facility will house the administrative activities of the 2nd Support Squadron, which is responsible for configuring and storing all munitions on the base. More than 200 people are assigned to the squadron, but probably only the 30 to 40 of them who have administrative responsibilities will work in the new building, Ashmore says. The rest will continue to operate out of older facilities in the munitions-storage area, he says.


The squadron is an Air Combat Command geographically separated unit assigned to the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, in Louisiana. A portion of Fairchilds Web site thats devoted to the squadron says the squadrons commander directs scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on air-launched cruise missiles, conventional air-launched cruise missiles, and support equipment valued at over $1 billion.


It also says that the squadron provides weapons storage for 41 accounts, including Fairchilds Air Mobility Command wing, the Survival Training Group, and the Washington Air National Guard. Ashmore says the munitions managed by the squadron dont include any nuclear weapons.


The personnel assigned to the squadron currently work out of three 1950s-era buildings that are located within the munitions-storage area. Department of Defense safety standards, however, now require that administrative functions be located outside of munitions-storage areas, Ashmore says.


Two of the three older buildings currently used by the squadron will be demolished in conjunction with the construction of the new administration building, and the third building will be demolished later as part of a separate project, he says. Other details about that project arent available yet, he says.


Fairchild says its civil engineering environmental staff prepared an environmental assessment that found no significant environmental impacts are expected to result from the planned project.