USAF plans major realignment at base

The Air Force is planning a major re-alignment of Mountain Home AFB that will result in the 366th Wing becoming essentially a pure fighter wing.

The B-1s from the 34th Bomb Squadron and the KC-135Rs from the 22nd Air Refueling Squadron will be reassigned to other bases sometime in the next 12 to 18 months.

In exchange, the Air Force plans to flesh out the existing fighter squadrons to a full 24-aircraft complement, beginning with the F-15Es of the 391st Fighter Squadron, to significantly increase the number of maintenance personnel, and to expand the current Control and Reporting Element to a Control and Reporting Center.

The net result, the Air Force says, will be no reduction in personnel stationed at the base.

Approximately 500-700 people currently on base could be affected by the decision.

In addition, the base has been identified as a likely location for F-22 Raptor fighters in the future. The decisions were revealed in a letter released by Sen. Larry Craig from Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche. Sen. Craig said the Air Force has pledged to make the transition in personnel as smooth as possible to avoid any serious dislocation of the local economy.

Both he and Sen. Mike Crapo also noted as "significant" a paragraph in Roche's letter in which he states that "at an appropriate time in the future and based on the number of aircraft the USAF is authorized to procure, the USAF will seriously consider Mountain AFB as a potential location for the next beddown site of the F-22."

"This is the first time the Air Force has given a clear indication, in writing, that we are next in line for the F-22s," Craig said.

Currently, the Air Force is wrapping up an environmental impact statement on the beddown of the first full wing of F-22s. Most observers expect that Langley AFB, Va., the preferred location, will be awarded the first Raptor wing sometime in the next month.

However, Craig said, Langley has faced some protests over that location and "we're going to make one more run at them (the Air Force) to located them in Mountain Home" before the final decision is made.

The F-22s would replace the F-15Cs of the 390th Fighter Squadron if they were to be located here.

Both the 34th Bomb Squadron, with its history that goes back to the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in WWII, and the 22nd ARS, will be deactivated as squadrons, with aircraft and crews reassigned as necessary to other bases. The B-1s will be sent to either Dyess AFB in Texas or Ellsworth AFB in S. Dakota. The KC-135R tankers will become part of the Kansas Air National Guard at McConnell AFB. The Kansas Air Guard also is losing its current B-1 mission to either Dyess or Ellsworth. Some of the existing support crews on base will be relocated and others will be retrained and retained at Mountain Home AFB.

As part of the planned moves the Air Force also intends to use Mountain Home AFB as a test bed for a crew-ratio test program -- "eventually revolutionizing how the Air Force assigns manning to all fighter aircraft," Roche said in his letter. The test program will evaluate if increased numbers of maintenance personnel can result in less down time for aircraft, allowing more sorties to be flown.

The USAF will flesh out the 391st to a full complement of 24 aircraft within the year, sources told the Mountain Home News. Roche's commitment to fleshing out the other two fighting squadrons on base, the 390th and the 389th with its F-16CJs was more nebulous. Staff members at Craig's office said it was likely those additional aircraft would be relocated here "as they become available" from other units being realigned across the country.

The moves reflect a major shift in the organization of the base.

"The composite wing, as we have known it, will be going away," Craig explained, but he said the wing's role as an "on-call" rapid reaction force would likely remain for at least the foreseeable future, with the fighters forming the core of any expeditionary force and such support elements as needed added on later. The wing currently trains with a wide variety of aircraft from other bases, including F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter/bombers and EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft.

Craig said Roche's letter was in response to demands from the state's congressional delegation that the previously announced relocation of the B-1s be replaced with some other aircraft or forces.

"I see this as the follow-on step that we asked for," Craig said.

The Air Force has not announced a time line for the moves, but both Craig and Crapo said they expected the actions would take place over the next federal fiscal year.

Depending on how long the B-1s remain deployed to the war in Afghanistan (currently they are stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean the base has announced), "the B-1s might not be coming back at all," said Jake Trees, Craig's administrative assistant.

He said if the deployment lasted several months the Air Force might proceed with the realignment and the planes and their crews would return to a new home base, rather than Mountain Home AFB.

A special analysis team from the Air Force will visit the base to determine the schedule of realignment that will least impact the local community and still serve the needs of the Air Force he said. "After that, we should have a much better timeline of when all this is going to happen."

Craig said the state's congressional delegation has stressed in every meeting with the Air Force the need to make the transition as smooth as possible.

"We've told them that Mountain home as a community is relatively isolated and can't absorb any loss. If we lose 200 people it would be felt immediately. We've insisted, and they've pledged to do this, that the transition be relatively seamless."

Crapo added that "we made it clear we were happy with the commitments they were making on replacement missions, but we wanted to see no holes in the transition. We insisted this be a smooth transition."

Crapo said it was likely the moves would be made piecemeal over the next year.

He also indicated that the first move the wing may see is the expansion of the Control and Reporting Element to a center. The unit reports on the status and availability of aircraft, as well as helping provide battlefield management of aircraft. Several bases report to a reporting center and Crapo said the increase in personnel there would be significant.

Crapo also said that because of the current war, "my feel for it (the transition) is that it would be several months away, if not until next year."

Both senators said they did not expect the moves would have any affect on Mountain Home AFB when Congress eventually approves a new Base Realignment and Closure Commission process. Both men said they felt the controversial BRACCs would not come up until at least next fall, although legislation creating a new base closure process has been introduced already.

Crapo noted that the new training range "is a very big factor" in the survival of the airbase in any base closure process. He also pointed out that the base's relative isolation makes it an ideal location for aircraft and specialized units because security is easier to effect than it is at bases near major urban centers.