GLENVILLE — A training center for 700 armed forces personnel opened Thursday at the Schenectady County Airport in a ceremony that was all spit and polish.

The facility off Rudy Chase Drive will serve as a consolidated training and armory facility for 12 Navy Reserve units and one Marine unit currently based in Albany, four Navy units in Glens Falls and two Army units in Schenectady. It also will be used for recruitment and for family support services.

County officials called the center essential in making the airport a multi-service base. They said it will increase the chances that the 109th Airlift Wing of the Air National Guard, which shares space at the airport, will weather future attempts by the Pentagon to trim costs by closing bases.

At Thursday’s ceremony, an honor guard of Army, Navy and Marine personnel, their dress uniforms bedecked with ribbons and medals, displayed service flags and the flag of the United States. Another contingent, consisting of officers and a Marine master sergeant, raised the flag during the national anthem.

Capt. John E. Cole, commander of the Navy Reserve Region Mid-Atlantic Component Command, said the new center represents the closing of one chapter and the opening of a new chapter.

It replaces the Albany Reserve Training Center, which had been in operation since 1956 and was the first joint reserve training center in the United States, Cole said. It also replaces armories in Schenectady and Glens Falls.

The military is closing down armories because they are inefficient training facilities, are expensive to operate and maintain and are not secure.

About 180 Marines from Fox Company out of Albany will train for checkpoint and other guard duties at the center. They will be joined by approximately 191 New York Army National Guard members from the 501st Explosive Ordnance Battalion and Company E of the 427th Brigade Support Battalion, which are currently stationed at the Washington Avenue Armory, and about 200 Navy members.

The center will employ 40 people full time, including administrative and medical staff and Seabees, the Navy’s engineering arm.

Situated on 18 acres off Route 50 in Glenville, the center includes a 4,400-square-foot vehicle maintenance facility and parking for 420 vehicles. It features a 30-foot-tall red brick facade with masonry accents and mansard roof. It contains a dozen classrooms and room for physical fitness, military training and storage, as well as administrative space.

The facility cost more than $14 million to build, with another $6 million spent on equipment.

Cole said the center is more than just a training facility. He called it a “community node,” meaning staff there will provide assistance and support to service personnel and their families.

“Facilities like this make the team one. They are gateways for the armed services,” he said.

Center Commander Lisa Schweinfurth and her Army and Marine counterparts are ombudsmen for the troops and their families, helping them obtain entitlements and keeping families informed when their loved ones are deployed overseas.

“She is the personality who interacts with other personalties,” Cole said.

Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island, who helped secure federal funding for the project, said service personnel “deserve to have the finest and most up-to-date training facilities possible.”

At the time the project was announced in 2005, it was the second largest military building project in the state; a project at Fort Drum was larger. The Department of Defense has signed a 50-year lease with the county and will pay $25,000 annually in rent.

County Legislator Martin Finn, D-Niskayuna, said the center represents the “start of a grand plan for the airport.” The county is currently developing a tech park on former airport land that will contain Fortitech, which makes vitamin supplements, as well as other businesses.