The Air Force is expected to award a contract early next year for 1,165 new privatized housing units and improvements to hundreds more at six Air Force bases in the Midwest. The majority of the work—construction of 676 new housing units and renovations to 376 existing base homes—will be done at Cannon AFB, N.M., which has the greatest need for improved housing, according to an Associated Press report. USAF officials anticipate that this work will take six years to complete. The Air Force has renovated more than 23,000 privatized homes since the late 1990s in an effort to expeditiously improve the quality of life for airmen at a lower cost than military construction can provide.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.