AFCEE builds new brigade headquarters in Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Summer Allen
  • AFCEE Contingency Construction Division
CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan --  The Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment is nearing completion of two new brigade headquarters buildings at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan. This $15.6 million construction project will be occupied by two U.S. Marine Corps units and other coalition forces.

Camp Leatherneck is collocated with Camp Bastion, which was established by the United Kingdom in 2006, and Forward Operating Base Tombstone, which is itself collocated with Afghan National Army base Shorabak. These bases make up a strategic and tactical hub for coalition forces in the fight to stabilize the volatile Helmand Province in southwest Afghanistan.

Camp Bastion is the main joint U.S. and U.K. military base, accommodating 25,000 people and situated northwest of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province. This is Britain's largest military camp in the world, serving in what is considered by officials to be one of the most dangerous areas in the region.

"Within Camp Bastion, U.S. Marines needed new facilities to manage day-to-day tactical operations and give the command units stationed there additional and enhanced resources to help the Afghani people fight the Taliban," said Albert Kellner, AFCEE contingency construction project manager in San Antonio, Texas.

"The Second Marine Expeditionary Force has an intelligence unit located on Camp Leatherneck and will use one of the new facilities as a command center to manage Marine movement and operations throughout the regional command southwest battlespace," said Capt. Ray Orr, AFCEE project manager in Afghanistan. "The Second Marine Air Wing logistical unit will move into the other building when complete."

Each building will accommodate 200 personnel and will include command and control centers, sensitive compartmentalized information facilities, administrative areas, bathrooms and supporting facility infrastructure.

The new buildings will give Marines state-of-the-art platforms on which to conduct operations, Orr said.

"An interesting feature about this construction project was the upgrades to the security features that are not normally included in a standard military construction project," Orr said.

The added security features resulted in increased construction time to ensure all requirements were met.

AFCEE contractors are completing the construction in two phases. The first phase involves construction of the southern brigade headquarters facility, while the second involves the northern brigade headquarters building on Camp Leatherneck.

"The work here is critical to our global mission," Orr said. "There was an urgent need for a consolidated contingency operation center in this area, allowing us to provide better tools and resources for our military and coalition partners stationed in Afghanistan." Operations will soon be conducted from these facilities as the final stages of the project come to an end.

AFCEE will continue to make infrastructure and operational improvements for U.S. and coalition forces on Camps Bastion and Leatherneck through 2013, then shift focus to Afghan National Security Forces projects throughout southwestern Afghanistan.