Navy Special Operations expanding buildings, training area at Hancock County facilities

March 1, 2015

The Navy Special Operations forces at Stennis Space Center will soon benefit from funding for a new training facility at the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School and the expansion of their training area Hancock County.

The $10.3 million funding for the new classroom facility and $17.2 million to expand the Western Maneuver Area, a 3,800-acre special ops training area that opened in 2008, are among several projects to enhance the special operations capabilities at Stennis.

The list of proposed projects includes transient quarters, an operations/maintenance building, small craft berthing and launch facility, a student support building and infrastructure development.

The Naval Small Craft Instructions and Technical Training School prepares foreign security forces to conduct and support small craft operations around the world. More than 10,000 graduates from more than 100 nations have completed training at Stennis.

The funding for the classroom and training area expansion had the full support of Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, who said during the appropriations process, "The Special Operations facilities at Stennis have proven to be so useful that it is a struggle to schedule time for all the forces that can benefit from training there. The improvements that this bill would fund would help resolve that long-range problem and assure better training capacity for military personnel."