Navy Center Breaks Ground Saturday at 911th Airlift Wing

Officials will break ground Saturday on a Naval Operations Support Center located on the grounds of Moon Township's 911th Airlift Wing. 

The two-story facility will include space for Navy recruiting, administration and medical services, as well as a drill hall. 

The building is expected to open in February 2014, according to a statement from Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair. 

Murphy and Vice Admiral Robin Braun, Chief of the Navy Reserve and Commander of the Navy Reserve Force, will be on hand at 10 a.m. Saturday at the airlift wing for the ground-breaking ceremony and reception. 

The new Naval facility will replace an existing one in North Versailles. Cost estimates for the project and the number of Navy personnel assigned to the new facility were not immediately available. 

Members of Moon Township's military community earlier this year marked the ground-breaking of a new military commissary, which will sit on the corner of University Boulevard and the Interstate 376 Business Route. 

The commissary is expected to open next fall. 

The 911th Airlift Wing was targeted for closure by the Air Force earlier this year as a part of a series of Defense Department budget cuts. 

Defense Department Secretary Leon Panetta issued a directive to delay the planned 2012 closure by one year. Congress also approve a provision as a part of its 2013 defense budget that would halt all planned military base closures temporarily.