USAF to cut 250 fighter aircraft by fall of this year - to save money for NEW aircraft
Air Force cutting its fighter fleet
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Feb 14, 2010 10:27:01 EST
By fall, 250 fighters will be in the boneyard and the 4,000 airmen who fly or fix them will have new jobs, according to an officer overseeing the aircraft drawdown.
The first planes head for retirement April 1; if all goes as planned, the last ones will be off the flight line by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
“Units have already started to put people on the move list,” said Col. Jack Forsythe, with the Air Staff’s strategic plans directorate.
The Air Force unveiled the retirement plans in May but needed congressional approval to decommission the fighters, including primary, attrition reserve and backup inventory aircraft. The permission came Dec. 19, when President Obama signed the Defense Department’s fiscal 2010 budget.
Included in the budget, however, are stipulations that the Air Force write several reports explaining, for example, the rationale for the retirements and the impact that the smaller fleet will have on Operation Noble Eagle, the military operations related to homeland security.
“All the reports have been written and are under review,” Forsythe said. “We expect to have them to Congress in time for the 1 April deadline.” Retiring the planes — 135 F-15C/D Eagles, 112 F-16C Fighting Falcons and three A-10 Thunderbolts — should save $350 million in fiscal 2010 and $3.5 billion in the next five years, Forsythe said.
The service hopes the saved dollars help pay for new aircraft.
The positions assigned to the fighters will be transferred to growing missions such as surveillance and intelligence analysis, said Forsythe, who was operations group commander for F-117 Nighthawks at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., when those jets were retired two years ago.
Planes will leave a few at a time and personnel will transfer when their fighters are retired. Maintainers and life support personnel will be reassigned to similar duties, Forsythe said.
Most pilots will continue to fly but may have to cross-train into new planes.
Last year, the Air Force identified many of the wings and squadrons to be decommissioned, but is still drawing up specific Air Force-wide retirement plans.
WHAT’S IN, WHAT’S OUT
Changes announced by the service last year*:
F-15C/D
Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.: 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron loses two Eagles.
Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska: 19th Fighter Squadron loses 24 jets.
Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii: 199th Fighter Squadron loses 15 aircraft.
Langley Air Force Base, Va.: 71st Fighter Squadron loses 18 airplanes.
RAF Lakenheath, England: 48th Fighter Wing loses six Eagles.
Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.: 325th Fighter Wing loses 48 fighters.
F-16
Fort Wayne International Airport, Ind.: 163rd Fighter Squadron loses 18 fighters.
Hill Air Force Base, Utah: 34th Fighter Squadron loses 24 Falcons.
Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.: 188th Fighter Squadron loses 18 jets.
Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.: 56th Fighter Wing loses 28 fighters.
Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany: 52nd Fighter Wing loses 18 Falcons.
A-10
Barksdale Air Force Base, La.: 47th Fighter Squadron loses three fighters.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.: 354th Fighter Squadron loses three Thunderbolts and 358th Fighter Squadron loses three aircraft.
Moody Air Force Base, Ga.: 74th Fighter Squadron loses three aircraft and 75th Fighter Squadron loses three Warthogs.
Fort Wayne International Airport, Ind.: 163rd Fighter Squadron gains 18 A-10s.
Osan Air Base, South Korea: 25th Fighter Squadron loses three Thunderbolts.
Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.: 303rd Fighter Squadron loses three jets.
*The aircraft numbers don’t include the backup and attrition reserve aircraft the units are retiring.
