The State of the Base: Economic impact, jobs, and modernization

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — As they do each year, the community leaders of Houston County gathered together under one roof for Robins Regional Chamber’s State of the Base event on Thursday. As business owners and political leaders alike shared a meal, leaders from Robins Air Force Base shared facts and figured demonstrating their impact on the community, described their influence on the job market, and spoke about modernization at Robins Air Force Base through the activation of several new missions.

Colonel Lindsay Droz, commander of the 78th Air Base Wing, provided the first big details on everyone’s mind, Robins’ impact on the regional economy: $3.57 billion.

“We are proud to say that we maintained this high level of economic impact through post-COVID recovery, and the economic challenges facing our nation today,” Droz said.

The methodology to calculating this number, the data they collect and how they find the final result, has changed in recent years, however, Droz assured her listeners, Robins’ economic impact has remained “steady and strong” over the last several years.

Payroll made up for $2.7 billion of Robins’ impact, while the remaining total, $770 million, came as a result of direct base expenditures.

Despite such a large impact in fiscal year 2022, Robins did see some challenges.

Robins saw a decline of less than 1% in their payroll expenditures, meaning they paid their staff a lower total sum than they did the year prior; according to Droz, this is due to “attrition in the workforce,” or less staff, due to waves of retirement and “natural attrition.”

During fiscal year 2022, the base saw a total population of 22,636 personnel assigned. According to Droz, that’s breaks down to 14,000 civilians, 5,500 uniformed service members and 2,800 unincorporated personnel and contractors. As of Wednesday, March 1, Robins Air Force Base had 450 job vacancies — vacancies that Droz said the base is actively working to fill. The colonel explained that the jobs aren’t being removed; they’re just open at the moment.

The base’s direct expenditures were also impacted in comparison to years prior. Droz explained that in the last two year, Robins spent large sums of money, with several large contracts in place, on COVID-19 and products used to prevent it’s spread — an expenditure no longer required at Robins. The base also saw a decrease in the purchase of office supplies as a result of employees tele-working, or working from home. Finally, construction operations and maintenance projects at the base have reduced, “largely due to inflation.”

According to Droz, the total value of Robins Air Force Base contracts in the last fiscal year was $6.1 billions; $660 million of those funds was spent in the state of Georgia — 30% of that, more than $192 million, was spent in middle Georgia alone.

Col. Jeffrey Peske, acting director of contracting, spoke briefly later during the event about contract work at Robins.

Any businesses looking to do contract work with Robins Air Force Base can learn more by visiting www.sam.gov, by attending the Robins Requirement Symposium on March 23, with more detail at connect.ndia.org, or by attending the base’s monthly Industry Day at the Museum of Aviation on the first Tuesday of each month.

In addition to their economic impact through payroll and expenditures, Robins also paid into local education. Military tuition assistance in fiscal year 2022 was just over $2 million, with $460,000 going to civilians in school. Federal Impact Aid, impacting local school systems, was just over $1.1 million.

Droz summed up her report and said that Robins is facing many of the challenges that other businesses and organizations are facing — a reduction in a working population due to retirements and “natural attrition” and lower spending due to less COVID-19 needs and a higher rate of inflation.

Despite these factors, Robins Air Force Base continues to grow, with new missions and modernization quickly taking hold at the base, and the defense of the United States at the forefront of leadership’s mind.

“We all understand what’s at stake,” Droz said. “We understand that this is not about the base, but this is about our nation’s defense and our contribution to that. We are absolutely proud to be here.

“You can’t spend anytime in middle Georgia without hearing ‘every day in middle Georgia is Armed Forces Appreciation Day.’ At Robins, we like to turn that on it’s head, and say, ‘every day at Robins is middle Georgia Appreciation Day.’”

The remaining five speakers talked briefly about the future of the base and how each of their respective fields of expertise will contribute to it. Much of the conversation circled back to Robins Air force Base working to prepare for the “threats of tomorrow,” with new missions. Many groups on base are finding ways to support what’s to come in the future.

Brigadier General Jon Eberlan, commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, spoke about the future of the complex in the coming year, and what the future could hold as they modernize their mission.

“Our vision is to be the Department of Defense depot of choice,” Eberlan said. “We want people in the [Department of Defense] to bring work flow to our depots, and we’re going to do that through an integrated team, delivering integrated capabilities.”

The Air Logistics complex will work to maintain, repair and overhaul current day weapon systems and the components that support their platforms, while simultaneously hiring new staff with new sets of skills to adjust to changing needs. The logistics complex works even today to improve their processes, reducing the margin for error and the time necessary for any given task, becoming more efficient and reliable. The next year will be spent by the Air Logistics Complex “investing for the future,” as they do necessary updates to facilities, tools and specialties.

Colonel Brian Clough, deputy director of engineering and technical management, spoke about the workforce at Robins, opportunity and how the base will continue to develop an incoming workforce for their upcoming needs.

“There is no limit to the opportunities for jobs,” Clough said.

Engineers, scientists and technicians are in high demand at Robins Air Force Base. These positions are being filled by the traditional application method, but also through STEM programs on each level in the education system.

As more skills become necessary for the work done at Robins, the goal is to add new positions rather than replace old ones;

Through partnerships with colleges, universities and other organizations, and by expanding what “qualified” may mean when looking at applicant qualifications, Clough said that Robins hopes to bring in quality staff for new and ongoing tasks.

Colonel Christopher Dunlap, commander of the 116th Air Control Wing, and Colonel David J. “Bo” Rice, vice commander of the 461st Air Control Wing, both spoke about the retirement of the JSTARS mission, and the arrival of the Advanced Battle Management Family of Systems.

According to Dunlap, the JSTARS mission will fly its final flight in November of 2023. In welcoming the Advanced Battle Management Family of Systems, the 116th Air Control Wing will split into two groups; one managing a fusions center — a facility that takes in information and intelligence to then disseminate across the world; the other maintaining a logistics facility, a depot that will service the upcoming generations of weapon systems and platforms so they can move across the globe and meet any threats when necessary.

Keeping it brief, Rice said he sees this shift away from the JSTARS, and towards four new missions, as an opportunity rather than a challenge.

“I think we have two unique [opportunities] we’re focused on: at the more strategic level is one, the opportunity to close out a current mission that’s been done really well by a lot of great people over a number of years,” Rice said. “Our second opportunity is to take a lot of that same experience … that’s really steeped in ISR, command control, operations, a lot of those things, and develop the culture of the new mission.”

With the end of Rice’s comments, State of the Base 2023 was brought to a close. For more information, or to watch the original livestream yourself, you can visit www.robinsregion.com/sotb23/.

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