Cannon AFB to make change to special ops mission Published June 21, 2006 By AFSOC Staff Report AFSOC NEWS SERVICE, HURLBURT FIELD, FLA. -- The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that Air Force Special Operations Command will accept ownership of Cannon Air Force Base and Melrose Range in New Mexico beginning in October. The announcement comes after months of studies to find a suitable location for AFSOC operations to expand toward the west coast. As part of the expansion, the 16th Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field will move to Cannon AFB and the 1st SOW will stand up at Hurlburt Field. The AFSOC expansion to Cannon offers special operators a western U.S. base to enhance support for its operations in the pacific theater. Additionally, the Melrose Range and the surrounding region open up new and unrestricted training opportunities AFSOC does not currently experience, to include joint and composite training with other services and nations, as well as mission training opportunities. Initially, the 16th SOW will partition its assets to support the mission at Cannon. During the next few years, AFSOC will experience some growth as a result of the increased special operations mission as outlined in the Quadrennial Defense Review. The growth in weapons systems and people will be divided between the two bases. New airframes, to include the CV-22 Osprey and light support aircraft, will be assigned to Hurlburt as well as Cannon. Along with the aircraft, some jobs will transfer to Cannon AFB. The expansion of the AFSOC mission to Cannon AFB will take the base off of the Base Realignment and Closure List. Cannon AFB was targeted for closure in the latest round of Base Realignment and Closure recommendations. Under BRAC, the 27th Fighter at Cannon will begin drawing down. in spring of 2007.