MHAFB ranks last for Raptor wing

Mountain Home will not get the first wing of F-22 Raptors, the next-generation air superiority fighter of the Air Force.

Following more than a year of studies and hearings, the Air Force has decided to award the first 72-plane operational wing of the Raptors to Langley AFB, Va., the site it originally preferred, the home of Air Combat Command, and the traditional first home of all new fighter aircraft in the USAF inventory.

In fact, Mountain Home ranked fifth among the five bases under consideration for the new aircraft in the Environmental Impact Statement released last week by the Air Force.

Mountain Home AFB was marked down for several reasons, most of them associated with increased noise levels that would result from locating the additional wing at the airbase, and concerns raised by the area's Native Americans at Duck Valley Indian Reservation. Much of Langely's training operations would be over the Atlantic Ocean.

The F-22 is the first aircraft to be able to fly at supersonic speeds without using fuel-gobbling afterburners, a concept known as supercruise.

The report noted that Mountain Home AFB and Elmendorf AFB, which along with Tyndall AFB and Eglin AFB were under consideration for the wing, "with overland airspace (would) have no likely consequences to archaeological, architectural or visual resources, but native American and Alaska natives have expressed concerns about existing military or potential F-22 overflights.

"In Mountain Home AFB airspace, the Native Americans have expressed concern that overflights impact traditional resources including the Duck Valley Reservational traditional sites, sacred locations and important species.

"Native Americans have expressed concerns with chaff, flares, sonic booms and visual intrusion," and the report admitted there would be an increase in sonic booms if the wing were located at Mountain Home AFB.

In addition, construction that would be associated with the move of any Raptors to Mountain Home AFB would involve about 440 acres of work, which could have a slight potential for disturbing "terrestial communities" of protected flora and fauna.

Currently, under agreements reached with a variety of groups, including environmentalists, Native Americans and other federal and state agencies such as the BLM and Idaho Department of Fish and Game, flights by aircraft training from the base at the new ETI training range are restricted to certain types and times of operations in order to avoid conflicts with lambing seasons for Big Horn Sheep and nesting seasons for some upland game birds. And supersonic flight is severely restricted by both altitude and seasonal restrictions.

The FAA approved changes in early September in the Military Operating Area (MOA) airspace above the training range that expands the training area MOA.

The report raises a number of issues, primarily involving supersonic flight, that local officials believe must be addressed before any F-22s are allocated to Mountain Home AFB. Under a letter sent to the state's congressional delegation last month by the Secretary of the Air Force, the secretary indicated that Mountain Home AFB would be the next base to receive the F-22s. They would replace the F-15C air superiority fighter squadron aircraft on base.

Bill Richey, the govenor's military liason and a former vice wing commander at the base, noted that the decision to locate the F-22 wing at Langley involved an entire wing, not just one squadron, and the additional sortie rates -- and associated noise -- that would be generated by the extra aircraft were a factor in marking MHAFB down.

"This report evaluated an initial wing of F-22s," he said. "But we have only one squadron of F-15Cs here. We'd be impacted more than Langley due to an increase in the total number of sorties with two extra squadrons."

Richey said the wing has a developed a continuing dialogue with the tribal council at Duck Valley, called the "Wings and Roots" process, that is designed to help with the training range development, and which could be used to begin mitigation talks in advance of any move of F-22s to MHAFB. Under the current procurement rate, that move would be unlikely before at least 2005.

Richey said he was confident all issues raise in the report could be resolved in time to accept a squadron of F-22s at the base by that date.

"As the Air Force modernizes, you hope Mountain Home AFB would be modernized," he said. "You like to be on that leading edge, which we have been, ever since the composite wing was located here.

"The good things about Mountain Home still remain -- not encroachment (near the airbase), a local community and state that's 100 percent behind the base, and our training capability for overland, backyard training is number one in the Air Force."