As you may have noticed, it's my impression that the Air Force is an agency in search of a mission. Playing baby-sitter for our nuclear weapons is turning out to be a drag and "driving" drones carrying bombs and missiles over Iraq from consoles in Nevada doesn't seem to be particularly exciting either.

But, there's a new venue on the horizon. Cyber space. The Air Force is going to extend its dominion over land, sea, air and outer space to cyber space. And, the headquarters may be coming to a base near you, soon.

The New Hampshire High Technology Council is one of the regional groups working on the Hanscom proposal.

“The New Hampshire High Technology Council would welcome the center as another indication that New England is the premier technology sector in the country,” said Fred Kocher, president of NHHTC. “Right now, we are competing with Silicon Valley, the Triangle in the Carolinas and Austin, Texas, for that honor.”

Meanwhile, an $81 million advertising campaign has been launched--one of the "more imaginative things" Air Force Secretary Wynne was touting.

That the Pentagon is being "attacked" three million times a day is a bit of a shocker. You'd think that with all the spying and monitoring the National Security Administration and the FBI have been engaged in they'd, at least, have secured the Pentagon by now. Perhaps the ad is an exaggeration; aimed at building morale, sort of like George W. Bush lying to the troops about "winning" in Iraq.

Be that as it may, the advertising campaign may be just a bit premature or, using the word of the week, "precipitous."

Officials delay basing decision for Air Force Cyber Command The decision for the final location of the Air Force Cyber Command was expected to be finalized before the official Oct. 1 stand-up of the command, but Air Force leaders now say it will not be made until closer to the end of the year.

"This is to give us additional time to carefully review all the locations under consideration," said Maj. Gen. William T. Lord, AFCYBER (Provisional) commander. "We are currently reviewing how well the locations that have been identified to us match up to the needs of the Air Force," General Lord said.

Because of the sensitivities and classifications of portions of the command's mission, and to ensure fairness in the process, officials are not releasing the specific criteria being used in this process.

That was the word less than a month ago, in March. Now complications seem to have arisen, perhaps in response to some questions in Congress about Barksdale having been picked initially without much review. Presumably, the technology community is being invited to participate to gin up more support with the promise of jobs and it will be up to the next Administration and the next Congress to approve the next foray into cyber space.

The Air Force is evaluating bases in 18 states, including Hanscom, for a permanent command center.

Letters from the governors pitching their states as ideal base locations are due July 1, with Air Force representatives making site visits during the summer. A short list of four candidates will be announced by the end of the year. A final location decision is expected by September 2009.

Plenty of time for us to take a closer look and see if this project is as duplicative as it seems.