Posted on: Friday, January 10, 2003
Training complex planned at Bellows
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
A $35 million to $40 million military urban training facility at Bellows is being planned by Marine Corps Base Hawai'i officials, who are hopeful the project will be financed by 2006.
With seaside populations on the rise around the world, military experts say coastal areas will increasingly become the urban war zones of the future. With that in mind, Marines are planning ahead and planning big.
Brig. Gen. Jerry McAbee, the base commander, said yesterday that an urban training facility at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows would have not only buildings but also below-ground sewers, a mock subway system and an elevator shaft.
Officials are pursuing money in fiscal 2006 for the 15- to 20-acre Military Operations on Urban Terrain training area, or MOUT project, but McAbee said the money may come sooner.
Later in the decade, the Marine Corps expects to be fighting from the sea in Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicles, and from the sky in the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which is in testing.
To train for beach landings, the Marines are looking at purchasing or leasing land on Moloka'i for assaults that won't involve live fire.
Additionally, McAbee said he has hopes a high-speed vessel that could carry a battalion's worth of Marines will be based at Pearl Harbor or Kane'ohe Bay to transport troops to Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island or as far as Guam.
McAbee laid out the Marine Corps wish list yesterday at the annual Hawai'i-U.S. Military Partnership Conference held at The Royal Hawaiian hotel by the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i.
Among other Hawai'i military improvements noted at the conference, attended by several hundred business community and military members, was the Air Force plan to base a squadron of eight C-17 cargo carriers at Hickam Air Force Base.
Maj. Gen. Garry Trexler, director of space and air operations for Pacific Air Forces, said an increase of about 500 people and $152.7 million worth of military construction is needed at Hickam before the arrival of the latest-generation transports in 2005 or 2006.
Plans for more than $1 billion in projects for Ford Island also were detailed as the Navy centralizes operations and plans on putting in restaurants, shops and a Military Aviation Museum of the Pacific on the historic landmark. The work would be accomplished through public and private ventures.
McAbee's presentation was the first time some of the Marine Corps' ambitious plans were revealed.
McAbee said the urban training facility is envisioned to be used by more than just the Marine Corps, and was planned with U.S. Customs, the FBI, Honolulu Police Department, Hawai'i National Guard and other service components.
Moloka'i land, meanwhile, would give the Marines the opportunity to train with new Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicles.
The Marines stopped training on Moloka'i in the mid-1990s. At the time, Molokai Ranch land was being sought for a training site to replace Hawaiian Homestead land that the military leased.
Maj. Chris Hughes, Marine Corps Base Hawai'i spokesman, said the ranch land may be one of the areas being considered "but it's so far out in the future we have not specifically limited the location."
To date, McAbee said, a "needs statement" has been sent to Marine Corps headquarters, and no talks with landowners have begun.
Reach William Cole at 525-5459 or wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
