Officials rally support for F-35 mission at base

Friday, January 29, 2010

by Brian S. Orban

The F-35 is the newest fighter for the Air Force as well as other U.S. and foreign military branches.

With the Air Force preparing to host a series of meetings across southern Idaho in mid-February, state and city officials continue to rally support to bring the new F-35 Lightning II military fighter program to the state.

In addition to a letter-writing campaign that started in November, elected officials began two postcard "mail in" drives to spread the word regarding the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

People may pick up these postcards at the Mountain Home City Hall, the city's economic development office, the Mountain Home Public Library, the chamber of commerce or from several local businesses. Supporters may return the cards to city hall or the economic development office.

As part of the F-35 basing process, the Air Force hosts four public scoping meetings across southern Idaho starting Feb. 16. During the hearings, Air Force representatives will provide information on the Joint Strike Fighter proposal, answer questions from the public and accept comments on basing the aircraft at Mountain Home and Gowen Field. The meetings run from approximately 6 to 8 p.m. at each of the following locations:

Feb. 16 -- Grandview Elementary School

Feb. 17 -- College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls

Feb. 18 -- Boise State University

Feb. 19 -- Hacker Middle School

Times and locations may change as the Air Force finalizes details on these meetings.

In addition to the postcard "mail in" drives to spread the word regarding the F-35 at Mountain Home and Gowen Field, state and city officials encourage people across southern Idaho to submit personal letters expressing their support for the fighter program. With the March 1 deadline for letters approaching, people may send their letters to the following address:

HQ ACC/A7PS

129 Andrews Street, Suite 337

Langley AFB, VA 23665-2769

Attn: Ms. Sheryl Parker

For more information on this and other stories, see this week's edition of the Mountain Home News.

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What kind of environmental impacts will this have? Is there going to be weapon/artillery testing or shooting? What kind of fuel is needed, where is it going to come and how is it going to be transported. Thank You!

-- Posted by Solo Greene on Tue, Feb 2, 2010, at 10:28 AM
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As we retire older systems and bring in new systems this is the way of things. The F-35 has no magic bullets on it. It is just a new and more efficient airframe. Shoots the same bullets as the current F-15 and replaces the F-16 the base got rid of awhile back. Uses the same fuel as an F-15 that is already here. The F-35 is a stealthy, single-engine, supersonic multi-role fighter that will replace a variety of aging fighter and strike aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and allied defense forces. The A-10 Thunderbolt, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet and A/V-8 Harrier are among the jets it will replace. Once fielded, it will complement the fleet of F-22 Raptor air-supremacy fighters that are already operational.

-- Posted by jdvann on Wed, Feb 3, 2010, at 1:12 PM
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Solo,

Excellent questions. I think you should take these to the public meeting closest to where you live and ask the board the same questions. IMHO they are the ones that should be answering these types of questions.

-- Posted by B Mullen on Wed, Feb 3, 2010, at 7:21 PM
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Some helpful info...

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/f35/f-35specifications/f-35a-ctol-specifi...

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/f35/index.html

http://lukeforward.com/factsheets/f35-lightning-ii-fact-sheet.pdf

-- Posted by jdvann on Thu, Feb 4, 2010, at 10:49 AM
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Solo Greene,

To your question...the same amount of impact the base has had for over 50 years...little or nothing. The base generates over a billion dollars in revenue for the great state of Idaho per year... that's "one billion" The economic benefits to Mountain Home as well as the state and region, clearly outweight your "greenpeace" beliefs.

You where probably the "very few" who did not support the nuclear power plant project, which cost the region thousands of jobs and countless amounts of revenue $$$, just for the sake of the "sage-brush"! Wake-up and smell the 21st century.

"save the whales"

-- Posted by DUMBFOUNDED IN IDAHO on Fri, Feb 12, 2010, at 2:20 PM
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