Plans to turn RAF Cosford into a national defence training centre are being promoted as a key project for the West Midlands economy.
Regional leaders were told that the impact of the plan, which could create hundreds of new jobs, would be felt outside of Shropshire.
The West Midlands Regional Assembly backed a comprehensive lobbying exercise, dubbed Let's Fly Cosford, which seeks to persuade the Ministry of Defence to site its training centre at RAF Cosford. A rival site, at St Athan in South Wales, is also in the running.
All West Midlands MPs have been urged by the WMRA to do their bit to sell the benefits of RAF Cosford.
WMRA secretary Stephen Hind called for greater effort in explaining why the Cosford development would be regionally significant. There was also a need for senior members of local authorities to get involved in the campaign by becoming champions for RAF Cos-ford. "Assembly members and constituent bodies should promote Cosford at every opportunity, at meetings with MPs, the MoD, Ministers or civil servants. It is important that, collectively, the region reflects a level of passion for this matter," Mr Hind added.
WMRA chairman Coun David Smith (Con Lichfield) said: 'We can only at this stage keep our fingers crossed."
