What Potential JFCOM Closure Could Mean for Hampton Roads

What Potential JFCOM Closure Could Mean for Hampton Roads
by Patrick Genzler

The Secretary of Defense’s decision to close the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) has caused understandable anxiety and consternation in the Hampton Roads community, with business and government leaders mobilizing to reverse the Secretary’s decision.

JFCOM is critical to the Hampton Roads economy for several obvious reasons. It represents over 5500 jobs (active duty, government employees and contractors), and over a $700 million budget. Equally important, JFCOM and particularly the Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk, has become the
nucleus around which the high-tech modeling and simulation industry has grown in Suffolk and Portsmouth along the I-664 corridor. While the impact of the loss of current jobs will be significant, losing the impetus behind this engine for technology development could potentially be more damaging for the future of high-tech business development and employment in Hampton Roads.

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