Alaska stands up a new office to coordinate military affairs

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe announced a new Alaska Military Affairs Office on Thursday, a single state body to coordinate defense matters, housed in the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

The office will be the state's central point of contact for the military: advising the governor on defense-related economic development, coordinating infrastructure planning around installations, and serving as liaison to the congressional delegation, local governments, Tribal organizations and industry. A federal grant from the Pentagon's Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation supports it. The state did not disclose the grant amount or a staffing level, and named no director.

The office is built to bring in money. OLDCC, the program funding it, exists to help communities capture and adjust to defense investment, and Alaska is drawing a significant share of it right now. Dunleavy tied the move to the state's Arctic and Indo-Pacific position. "Alaska has never been more strategically important to our nation's security than it is today," he said. Saxe said strong military missions depend on strong communities.

What the office costs to run, against what it pulls in, is the open question, and one the state left unanswered Thursday. The grant figure and staffing will tell whether a new coordinating body is a net draw on the budget or, as the administration frames it, a way to capture federal dollars the state would otherwise miss.

It follows a June agreement naming Dunleavy the inaugural State of Alaska Arctic Chair with the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, which Alaska News has covered.