Udall: Fort Carson Getting 2,700 More Soldiers
DENVER (AP) - Fort Carson will get about 2,700 more soldiers and 113 helicopters as part of a new Army aviation brigade, Sen. Mark Udall said Monday.
The expansion will push the military population based at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs, to nearly 30,000 and will bring about $224 million in contracts for construction to accommodate the brigade, Udall's aides said.
"This is terrific news for the post and for Colorado," Udall, D-Colo., said in a conference call with reporters.
Udall said the expansion would likely take place in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, which puts it between October 2012 and September 2014.
Fort Carson is now home to four combat brigades of about 3,800 soldiers each and several other units.
Post officials declined to comment Monday, saying they were still awaiting the expansion announcement from the Defense Department. Udall said Army officials briefed him on the expansion Monday morning.
Brian Binn of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce said the timing of the expansion is fortuitous because construction at Fort Carson from the last round of military base consolidations and closings is winding down. Fort Carson grew during that phase as units were shifted there from other locations.
"(The aviation brigade) has a positive economic impact on the community and for the state of Colorado in terms of any business sector you could probably mention," said Binn, the chamber's president for military affairs.
The announcement was expected. The Army said late last year that Fort Carson was one of its two preferred sites for two helicopter brigades. One brigade will be new and the other will be a consolidation of aircraft and personnel now assigned to other units.
Udall said Fort Carson is getting the new unit, which will be designated the 13th Combat Aviation Brigade.
The preferred site for the other brigade was Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. It wasn't clear Monday where that proposal stood.
Udall said the addition of the aviation brigade will not result in any expansion at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeast Colorado, where Fort Carson soldiers do some of their training.
The Army's previous plans to expand the 370-square-mile site by 156 square miles ran into tenacious opposition from nearby farmers and ranchers, who feared the loss of agricultural land would hurt the regional economy.
In January, Fort Carson officials said the Army has no current plans to expand Pinon Canyon, citing a change in training doctrine and looming budget cuts.
A programmatic environmental impact statement released by the Army in November said helicopter training could have significant impact on the soil at Fort Carson and Pinon Canyon, which could be mitigated with dust control measures.
-By Dan Elliott, AP Writer
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
