metro
04-09-2008, 08:20 AM
Federal agency to launch $20M training facility at OKC airport
Journal Record
April 9, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY – The U.S. Customs and Border Protection department will dedicate a $20 million national training facility for its air and marine division at Will Rogers World Airport on Friday, officials said.
The department deploys the world’s largest law enforcement air force for immigration and contraband laws and homeland security, customs spokesman Eric Blum said. More than 700 pilots and 260 aircraft are needed to patrol the country’s borders, as well as airspace extending to Central America. Many of those people pass through Oklahoma City – more than 250 customs personnel attend training courses in the city annually, including about 230 pilot applicants in 2007.
Federal officials estimate the training center, which has been operating from temporary offices at Wiley Post Airport, contributed to more than $10.5 million to the local economy last year. Customs and Border Protection already has about 30 regular employees and the same number of contract workers at the center. The project, which took about 18 months to complete, consolidates the agency’s local offices and triples the Department of Homeland Security’s available training space in Oklahoma City.
The new center at 5600 Air Cargo Rd. has about 67,500 square feet, nearly 40,000 of which is hangar space. Although marine activities are part of the division’s name, the Will Rogers center will deal only with flight training, Blum said.
Air interdiction agents – also known as pilots, Blum said – will make good use of the facility’s multipurpose training room and rooms for flight planning, night-vision goggle training and student briefing. The increased space will allow customs to meet projected increases in training and standardization requirements. A training helicopter and several surveillance planes will be kept in the center’s hangar. Each student requires a lot of aviation equipment and several instructors. Training for airborne interceptions, for example, involves not only the trainee aircraft, but the practice suspect craft as well, officials said. Courses typically run from three days to four weeks.
http://journalrecord.com/_images/articles/t_labscustoms%20plane.jpg
A Citation C550 sits in the hangar of the CBP Air and Marine’s new national training facility on Tuesday at Will Rogers World Airport. (Photo by Jennifer Pitts)
Journal Record
April 9, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY – The U.S. Customs and Border Protection department will dedicate a $20 million national training facility for its air and marine division at Will Rogers World Airport on Friday, officials said.
The department deploys the world’s largest law enforcement air force for immigration and contraband laws and homeland security, customs spokesman Eric Blum said. More than 700 pilots and 260 aircraft are needed to patrol the country’s borders, as well as airspace extending to Central America. Many of those people pass through Oklahoma City – more than 250 customs personnel attend training courses in the city annually, including about 230 pilot applicants in 2007.
Federal officials estimate the training center, which has been operating from temporary offices at Wiley Post Airport, contributed to more than $10.5 million to the local economy last year. Customs and Border Protection already has about 30 regular employees and the same number of contract workers at the center. The project, which took about 18 months to complete, consolidates the agency’s local offices and triples the Department of Homeland Security’s available training space in Oklahoma City.
The new center at 5600 Air Cargo Rd. has about 67,500 square feet, nearly 40,000 of which is hangar space. Although marine activities are part of the division’s name, the Will Rogers center will deal only with flight training, Blum said.
Air interdiction agents – also known as pilots, Blum said – will make good use of the facility’s multipurpose training room and rooms for flight planning, night-vision goggle training and student briefing. The increased space will allow customs to meet projected increases in training and standardization requirements. A training helicopter and several surveillance planes will be kept in the center’s hangar. Each student requires a lot of aviation equipment and several instructors. Training for airborne interceptions, for example, involves not only the trainee aircraft, but the practice suspect craft as well, officials said. Courses typically run from three days to four weeks.
http://journalrecord.com/_images/articles/t_labscustoms%20plane.jpg
A Citation C550 sits in the hangar of the CBP Air and Marine’s new national training facility on Tuesday at Will Rogers World Airport. (Photo by Jennifer Pitts)