July 02, 2024

Castro, Cornyn, Fallon, Cuellar Push to Bring AFCYBER Consolidated Campus to Port San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO — This week, Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Senator John Cornyn (TX), Congressman Pat Fallon (TX-04), and Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) released a letter sent to the U.S. Secretary of the Air Force expressing strong support for Port San Antonio’s efforts to build a consolidated campus for the 16th Air Force (AFCYBER) and associated missions and partner agencies.

AFCYBER employs more than 2,000 Airmen, civilians, and contractors to conduct sensitive cyberspace and information operations, electronic warfare, intelligence, and reconnaissance activities in support of U.S. national security objectives. Currently, AFCYBER operations are housed in several aging buildings spread across the campus of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Port San Antonio’s proposal would move these operations to a consolidated campus at a potentially lower cost and faster timeline than alternative military construction pathways.

“This effort has the potential to not only save the Air Force significant money but will also result in a state-of-the-art facility for our warfighters delivered more expeditiously than traditional delivery methods,” the members wrote. “This thriving innovation and technology campus supports a significant and rapidly growing presence of key Air Force and Department of Defense missions, along with an array of defense industrial enterprises, startups, academic and research institutions, and other strategic stakeholders. The AFCYBER campus will be designed and built to serve as a base of the future, emphasizing human factors design[ed] for maximum human performance while meeting physical and radio frequency security requirements.”

“We greatly value the partnership with Senator Cornyn and Representatives Castro, Fallon and Cuellar. They recognize that our effort will not only be of great benefit to the American taxpayer; the proposed AFCYBER campus will deliver an invaluable strategic advantage to our national defense. It will entail spaces that provide our cyber warriors with an integrated, state-of-the-art environment in the heart of one of America’s leading technology innovation communities to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure from the growing threat of cyberattacks. We look forward to our continued collaboration with our elected leaders, our military, our industries and all other stakeholders to ensure that—together—we empower our warfighters with top-tier facilities, modern tools and all other necessary support they require in the century ahead as the front lines against America’s adversaries are increasingly drawn in the digital realm,” said Jim Perschbach, President and CEO of Port San Antonio.

The full letter that lawmakers sent to the Air Force can be viewed here and below:

Dear Mr. Secretary,

We write to express our strong support for Port San Antonio's efforts to build a new consolidated campus for the Air Force (AFCYBER), its associated missions, and partner agencies across the Cyber National Mission Force. This effort has the potential to not only save the Air Force significant money but will also result in a state-of-the-art facility for our warfighters delivered more expeditiously than traditional delivery methods.

The proposed campus will be located directly adjacent to the academic, commercial, and research capabilities hosted at Port San Antonio. This thriving innovation and technology campus supports a significant and rapidly growing presence of key Air Force and Department of Defense missions, along with an array of defense industrial enterprises, startups, academic and research institutions, and other strategic stakeholders. The AFCYBER campus will be designed and built to serve as a base of the future, emphasizing human factors design for maximum human performance while meeting physical and radio frequency security requirements.

We applaud the Air Force for recognizing the need for innovative solutions to its infrastructure needs. The Air Force's openness to use an Intergovernmental Support Agreement (IGSA) for Port San Antonio to perform pre-development activities during which the Port will prepare schematic design, cost estimates, and feasibility studies, is especially encouraging. These results will enable the Air Force and Congress to determine the best way ahead for the project.

We ask the Air Force to continue to work with Port San Antonio in the formulation and execution of the initial IGSA and that our offices be regularly kept apprised of the progress of the project. Thank you for your attention to this matter.