Base to resume flight training

Aircrews from Mountain Home Air Force Base are due to resume flight training Wednesday after service-wide budget cuts grounded the base's jets for nearly three months.

The base was one of many installations across the Air Force that resumed regular flying operations this week after sequestration grounded most of this training in April.

The restored flying hour program represents Congressional action on the $1.8 billion overseas contingency operations reprogramming action made peacetime dollars available. The Air Force Council approved the use of $423 million of those dollars to restore flying hours for affected units.

At the local Air Force base, the funding will allow pilots and weapons systems officers to continue "crucial training and development," a base spokesperson said in a prepared statement. In addition, maintenance crews "are now able to return to the normal ops tempo required with flying operations."

"As the wing commander, I'm happy to be flying again," said Col. Chris Short, commander of the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base. "It's the first step toward regaining our combat capability. The stand down has an immediate impact on our operational readiness, and it takes time to retrain aircrews to mission-ready status."

The money approved by Congress reinstates critical training and test operations for the Combat Air Forces, or CAF, fleet across the service for the remainder of fiscal 2013. This impacts not just Air Combat Command units, but also CAF units assigned to U.S. Air Forces Europe and Pacific Air Forces.

For ACC, the restored flying hours will be allocated to combat aircraft and crews across the command's operational and test units, including the Air Warfare Center's Weapons School, Aggressors and the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team. Previously announced decisions to cancel some major exercises and all Thunderbirds demonstrations for 2013 remain in effect.

"We will use the resources we've been given to maximize our ability to fly and prepare airmen and units," Short said.

While the budget cuts grounded the base's 391st Fighter Squadron, it didn't affect crews with the 389th Fighter Squadron, who are currently deployed to Southwest Asia in support of combat operations in Afghanistan. Additionally, sequestration had no direct impact on the base's 428th Fighter Squadron, which receives its funding from the Republic of Singapore air force to train its aircrews at the base here.

While the return to the sky means a return to crucial training and development for pilots, navigators, flight crews, mission crews and maintainers, the leader of the Air Force's CAF fleet cautions that this is the beginning of the process, not the end.

"Since April we've been in a precipitous decline with regard to combat readiness," said Gen. Mike Hostage, commander of ACC. "Returning to flying is an important first step, but what we have ahead of us is a measured climb to recovery."

"Our country counts on the U.S. Air Force to be there when needed -- in hours or days, not weeks or months," Hostage said. "A fire department doesn't have time to 'spin up' when a fire breaks out, and we don't know where or when the next crisis will break out that will require an immediate Air Force response."

The restoration of flying hours only addresses the next 2 1/2 months of flying until the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

"This decision gets us through the next several months, but not the next several years," Hostage said. "While this paints a clearer picture for the remainder of (fiscal 2013), important questions remain about (fiscal 2014) and beyond. Budget uncertainly makes it difficult to determine whether we'll be able to sustain a fully combat-ready force."

Additionally, the restoration comes at a cost to future capability, including reduced investment in the recapitalization and modernization of the combat fleet, he said.

"We are using investment dollars to pay current operational bills, and that approach is not without risk to our long-term effectiveness," Hostage said. "We can't mortgage our future. America relies on the combat airpower we provide, and we need to be able to continue to deliver it."