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BRAC calls for base to face realignment; lose a squadron in 2011
Mountain Home AFB will receive an additional squadron of F-15E aircraft in 2009, and then lose two squadrons, the F-16CJ and F-15C units, in 2011, under the Air Force's proposed schedule to implement Friday's base realignment and closure recommendations made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The net result of the plan being forwarded by Rumsfeld to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) will be an increase of over 500 personnel between 2009 and 2011, and then a final loss, in 2011, of between 528 and 569 military jobs on base, plus about 31 civilian jobs on base.
The Air Force estimates the civilian economy would lose about 305 "indirect" jobs as a result of the base drawdown in 2011, or about 5.8 percent of the current workforce in the Mountain Home area.
That long-term loss would automatically trigger assistance, immediately, from the Department of Defense's Office of Economic Assistance (OEA), which is designed to mitigate economic losses due to adverse realignment effects. In the mid-'90s, when Mountain Home briefly had no mission assigned to it, it was the OEA's assistance and funding that created the area's current economic development program.
The realignment and closure recommendations announced Friday called for 33 major military installations in the United States to be closed, and 179 others realigned. As expected, the Navy took the biggest hits in terms of closures.
In Idaho, in addition to the realignment at Mountain Home AFB, the Naval Reserve Center in Pocatello was slated for closure (about seven jobs), and the Idaho Air National Guard would lose its C-130 squadron but keep its A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog) squadron.
Most of the Air Force realignments were designed to return the USAF to a system that was in place more than a decade ago in which each aircraft wing was composed of exactly the same type of aircraft, a system that usually results in reduced maintenance costs.
In part, because of the lessons learned by the composite wing at MHAFB, the Air Force had spent the last decade developing "strike package" wings of dissimilar but operationally supportive aircraft.
Specifically, Friday's recommendations by the Department of Defense to the BRAC commission, which took two years to develop, called for bringing 18 operational and three reserve F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bombers from the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage, Alaska, to Mountain Home AFB in FY2009 to form a pure F-15E wing. Currently, the 391st Fighter Squadron on base flys the F-15E, and has 31 of those aircraft assigned to it.
The 18 older F-15C Eagle aircraft of the base's 390th Fighter Squadron would be redistributed in FY2011 among several bases. Nine would go to the 57th Fighter Wing at Nellis AFB outside Las Vegas, Nev., six would go to the 125th Fighter Wing at Jacksonville International Airport AGS in Florida, and three would be retired.
The 18 F-16CJ Viper (Falcon) aircraft of the 389th Fighter squadron, configured for Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD), also would be broken up and redistributed in FY2011, sending nine to the 169th Fighter Wing at McEntire AGS, South Carolina, five to the 57th Fighter Wing at Nellis, and four to the USAF reserve inventory.
Rumsfeld's announcement said the moves involving Mountain Home AFB were based primarily on military value considerations.
In FY2007 Mountain Home AFB also would lose about 20 military personnel when the base-level intermediate maintenance unit for the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTRIN) unit is realigned to Hill AFB in Utah.
The move of the F-16s to the Air Guard Stations reflects the plan to replace those aircraft with the new F-35s, which are expected to begin coming on-line around 2010.
The USAF's F-15C air superiority fighters are being replaced by the new F-22 Raptors, under a production schedule that has been slowed down and reduced considerably by Congress. Currently, Langley AFB in Virginia has one operational squadron of Raptors and Elmendorf has been named to receive the second. A 1998 study had listed Langley, Elmendorf and Mountain Home as the top preferred locations for the Raptors, but no announcement of any intention to move F-22s to Mountain Home has been made to this point.
Mountain Home AFB was not considered by observers to be a candidate base for closure, but its very appearance on the proposed BRAC list came as a shock and surprise to local and state officials, and the state's congressional delegation.
"I'm shocked," admitted Terry Turner, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs Committee, which closely monitors base status and constantly lobbies on behalf of the base. "I actually thought we would pick up some mission. The bottom line is, however, that the base is still here.
"I just came back from Washington, D.C., three weeks ago and there were no indications we would be on the list. With the training range, no complaints, and a lack of environmental issues, I thought we were safe." He said MAC would be closely looking at the details of the proposal and develop a mitigation plan.
Mayor Joe B. McNeal said that he was "disappointed" in the long-term loss of a squadron on base, "but I'm grateful we're not closing."
Sen. Mike Crapo also expressed "shock and surprise."
"I haven't seen the rational yet for why they (DoD) believes this is in the best interests of national defense.
"Of course, I'm glad we're not on the closure list, but we didn't expect this. The base is so well prepared for modern technology that we actually expected to gain missions.
"This is not the end of the process," he said, adding that the state's congressional delegation would look into the possibility of adding a Raptor squadron to Mountain Home AFB.
The nine-member BRAC commission will now review the Secretary of Defense's recommendations and, after a series of hearings and visits to affected bases, will submit its final recommendations to the president by Sept. 8. The president will then send his recommendation for approval or disapproval of the complete package to Congress by Sept. 23. If he recommends approval, Congress has 45 days to enact a resolution of disapproval or the recommendations go into effect. If the president says no to the commission's final plan, it has until Oct. 20 to submit a revised plan. If no plan is accepted by the president and/or Congress, the BRAC process ends.
The BRAC commission can drop a base listed for closure, or adjust a recommended realignment, on a majority vote of the nine-member commission. Adding a base to the closure list requires approval by seven of the nine members and two of those seven must have visited the base in question.
This is the fourth and final round of BRAC recommendations over the last decade. This round of BRAC is being driven by efforts to save the Department of Defense money by reducing excess capacity at a time when the armed forces are still being slowly reduced in strength following the end of the Cold War. The main criteria being used is military efficiency and capacity of the nation's bases.
"Our defense department is phenomenally expensive and we owe the taxpayers the best money for the punch," said Col. Joe Horn, who briefed the press Friday on the BRAC recommendations, while adding that Mountain Home AFB, its airspace and training range, "are a significant asset available to train America's airmen."
He stressed that the changes being proposed at the base will occur slowly.
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne promised that he would "continue to work closely with the Idaho congressional delegation during the next phase of this process, which is far from over."
He also raised an issue other governors around the nation have raised, regarding the changes in the Air National Guard, contending that such changes, by law, must involve his consultation, and position not currently accepted by Rumsfeld and the DoD.
Second District Congressman Mike Simpson said he wanted to look at the plan to make sure if it truly met the long-term goals of the Air Force and if "it makes sense for the country.
"If this is it, we'll try to mitigate it," he said, noting that the eventual loss in 2011 of a squadron from current levels at the base might be made up by a squadron being brought home from overseas.
In addition to the realignment and closure of bases in the United States, a separate Overseas Basing Commission is currently evaluating changes in the presence of U.S. forces overseas. Two weeks ago it released its recommendations for Army and Marine units, moves that were reflected in the BRAC announcement, but has not made any recommendations so far for realignments and closures involving Air Force units overseas.
The Department of Defense is expected to pull out of many of its overseas commitments and change its basing priorities significantly as a result of the end of the Cold War. Many of the bases the United States has maintained overseas were positioned to oppose the Soviet Union, which no longer exists. As an example, while the U.S. formerly maintained more than a corps of infantry and armored forces in Germany, DoD will be reducing that strength to a mere reinforced brigade.
In general, the "forward presence" of U.S. forces overseas, that marked American military policy for five decades, is being ended. Because of modern U.S. rapid deployment capabilities, much of the force is expected to be returned to "garrison" status in the United States.
Simpson said the congressional delegation would look closely at the possibility of picking up a third F-15E squadron from overseas redeployments by 2011.
"We have our work cut out for us," he said. "We'll be looking at all aspects of this very closely."
In a statement released by the entire congressional delegation, Idaho's four senators and congressmen noted, "to the best of our knowledge, Idaho is the only state in the nation where training ranges are expanding, not shrinking. We are hopeful the BRAC commission will agree that these national security assests have clearly been overlooked by DoD.
"That being said, we are encouraged that...Mountain Home AFB will be receiving a more advanced model of the F-15, the F-15E. Some states may lose thousands of military and civilian personnel, but we will work together in Congress to keep these jobs and these families in Idaho.
"This is just the beginning of the BRAC process. The fat lady isn't singing, yet."