Executive director of the state's Office of Military Affairs, Bob Ross was appointed this week to the board of directors of the Association of Defense Communities.

The national organization features Ross' counterparts across the country, industry, community and government officials.

It has become much more influential in shaping defense policy, according to Ross, who said his post on the board will put him "in a position to help shape that conversation."

"The collective perception in the room" at a meeting of the ADC this week, Ross said, was that there is a "shift in the mood of Congress toward potentially approving another BRAC round as early as 2017" which, if approved, would occur in 2019.

He said, as he has in the past, that the Army and Air Force "desperately need" BRAC, but that Navy "not so much."

The sea service is confident that is about where it should be, he added.