188th base could be target of budget cuts
by November 22, 2011 5:38 pm 87 views
story by Michael Tilley
[email protected]
The 188th Fighter Wing based in Fort Smith may be one of the many military cuts possibly to result from Congressional failure to reach a deficit-cutting agreement.
According to a statement form the Arkansas National Guard, Major General William Wofford, the state’s adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, met Tuesday (Nov. 22) in Fort Smith with members of the 188th Fighter Wing to talk about how pending military budget cuts could impact the 188th. The statement said the cuts could be the largest since World War II. (See the complete statement at the end of this story.)
The base has a full-time contingent of about 350 service members.
A bipartisan, bicameral “super committee” of Congressional leaders announced Monday (Nov. 21) that they had failed to reach an agreement to tackle the country’s deficit spending and $15 trillion debt crisis.
When the super committee was established earlier this year, it was structured in a way to institute across-the-board spending cuts in the federal government should the group fail. Those cuts won’t start for at least another year. The cuts include more than $1 trillion in cuts to federal budgets during the next decade. The nation’s military would bear the biggest brunt of the deep cuts, as much as 10%, or $450 billion over the next 10 years.
‘EVERYTHING IS ON THE TABLE’
"We wanted to clarify some rumors that are floating around," Wofford said in the statement. "The reality is, after visiting with the director for the Air National Guard, the 188th could potentially be under consideration. What we’ve been told is that anything and everything is on the table. At this point we don’t know what the cuts are going to be in the DoD budget."
Continuing, Wofford noted: "We’ve got to show that the Fort Smith unit is the most cost effective A10 unit in the Air Force. We think we’ve got a good argument. With Fort Chaffee right next door, they can be on the range in just a matter of minutes. From a flying hour perspective, we’ve got a good argument for taxpayers."
The news comes four years after the 188th converted from the F-16 fighter jet to the A-10 ground support aircraft. The 188th recently completed its first combat tour in the Warthog. The 188th’s accomplishments during the aircraft conversion and subsequent deployment earned the wing the coveted Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for the period Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2010.
Conversion to the A-10 was the product of a last minute reversal of a decision to close the 188th. During May 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission was faced with 834 closings or realignment recommendations from the Department of Defense. Closing the 188th and reassigning its F-16 fighters was one of the DOD choices. The commission had to review the DOD info and make its own recommendations to President George Bush by Sept. 8, 2005. BRAC members visited 184 locations and held nine regional hearings in the process.
A contingent of Fort Smith business and civic leaders lobbied to keep the base open, saying the training area in Fort Smith, room to grow at the Fort Smith Regional Airport, the firing range at Fort Chaffee and training airspace in the area was too valuable for the military to abandon. The BRAC members agreed, and moved a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolts to Fort Smith.
The Air Guard recently opened an $8.3 million support building on the 188th base that was constructed with federal stimulus dollars. During the February grand opening, 188th Wing Commander Col. Tom Anderson said more than $30 million has been invested in the base since the BRAC closure recommendation was overturned.
CONTINGENCY PLANNING
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, said Tuesday he was not surprised by the announcement.
“Speaking only from a logical point of view knowing how large organizations plan for contingencies,” it is only reasonable to conclude “there has been a lot of contingency planning has been going on which the super committee was meeting,” Womack said.
Continuing, he said it is likely that “all of the services have been carefully scrutinizing their respective budgets” to develop “a number of scenarios” on how to cut their budgets.
Womack said the military cuts are “potentially hurtful to the nation’s security,” and are the result of both parties being unable to reach compromise on deficit reduction.
“Any time our political process fails on something so important to the future of our nation, I don’t think you can just say it’s one side or the other,” Womack said.
NEW MISSION?
In the Guard statement, Wofford said the location of the 188th base would make it an ideal candidate strategically for the F-35 strike fighter, as it was for the F-16. He said the F-35 is not now an available mission for the unit, but could be in the future.
"Nobody knows what’s going to happen yet, "said Wofford, "but whatever happens is not going to occur until after the unit’s upcoming deployment."
The unit is slated for an Air Expeditionary Forces rotation to Afghanistan in 2012, after having already logged 2,870 combat flight hours there in 2010, noted the Guard statement.
Wofford said his Fort Smith visit was to “help ease rumors in the unit” while it prepares for its future mission.
"I wanted the people to know we were going to be up front with them," Wofford said of his Fort Smith meeting. "We’ve heard the same rumors they have. We’ve got the same concerns they do. The earliest we would probably know would be February, when the president’s budget comes out. We can’t wait till February to tell our story and make the case. We’ve got to work now."
Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders issued the following statement about the possible 188th cut: “The 188th Fighter Wing, Arkansas Air National Guard, is a vital component of our region’s economy. Even more importantly, members of the unit have proven time and again their military value to our nation’s defense, through combat zone deployments, and implementing maintenance procedures that are now saving the entire Air Force more than a million dollars annually. Earlier this year, the 188th earned the Air Force’s second-highest unit-wide honor – the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. It’s absurd to think that this stellar unit – based in a community with one of the lowest costs of doing business in the nation – could once again be considered a candidate for closure. Rest assured the City of Fort Smith will work in concert with the 188th Fighter Wing / Fort Chaffee Community Council to pursue every potential avenue of attack to protect our unit from any potential threat – as they so ably protect our nation.”
ARKANSAS NATIONAL GUARD STATEMENT
Rumors addressed with Fort Smith’s 188th Fighter Wing ~ A-10 units among discussion of Department of Defense budget cuts
FORT SMITH, Ark. – The adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard met with members of the 188th Fighter Wing here today to address concerns relating to pending budget cuts within the Department of Defense. With DoD facing its greatest cuts since World War II, the future of the 188th – one of five A-10 units in the National Guard – has been the subject of multiple conversations.
"We wanted to clarify some rumors that are floating around," said Maj. Gen. William D. Wofford, the adjutant general. "The reality is, after visiting with the director for the Air National Guard, the 188th could potentially be under consideration. What we’ve been told is that anything and everything is on the table. At this point we don’t know what the cuts are going to be in the DoD budget."
The Department of Defense is already faced proposed budget cuts of $450 Billion, but with the Super Committee’s deadline met without decision those cuts will potentially double. Wofford said there have been no official talks of changes to the force structure in Arkansas at this point, but added "We don’t want to take anything for granted."
"We’ve got to show that the Fort Smith unit is the most cost effective A10 unit in the Air Force," said Wofford. "We think we’ve got a good argument. With Fort Chaffee right next door, they can be on the range in just a matter of minutes. From a flying hour perspective, we’ve got a good argument for taxpayers."
The unit’s location is not only a benefit in terms of taxpayer dollars, but also a tremendous strategic benefit in being centrally located in the nation. Following the aerial attacks of September 11, 2001, the unit was immediately called to deploy its force of F-16s at the time to protect America’s skies from border to border.
Those fast and furious fighters transitioned out of Fort Smith in 2007 as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure Committee recommendations of 2005. The resulting spark of community and congressional support helped the 188th earn its current mission aircraft, the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Wofford assured the unit’s force of 350 full-time Airmen that that same support would no doubt be there for the 188th as needed in the future.
"As part of the Arkansas Air Guard’s strategic plan, we’ve got to be looking beyond right now. What do we need 10 years from now, 20 years from now, so we can stay relevant," said Wofford. "From a long range planning perspective, we want to keep the A10. That’s our number one priority, but we would like at some point in the future to transition to the F-35."
Wofford said the location of the base would make it an ideal candidate strategically for the F-35, as it was for the F-16. And while the F-35 is not currently an available mission for the unit, it is a possible option for the future of this unit which has already proven its readiness to respond and commitment to serve.
"Nobody knows what’s going to happen yet, "said Wofford, "but whatever happens is not going to occur until after the unit’s upcoming deployment."
The unit is slated for an Air Expeditionary Forces rotation to Afghanistan in 2012, after having already logged 2,870 combat flight hours there in 2010.
Stressing that there has been nothing official handed down reference the 188th, General Wofford said he wanted to help ease rumors in the unit while preparing the troops for that potential fight in the future.
"I wanted the people to know we were going to be up front with them," Wofford said of his meeting with the troops today. "We’ve heard the same rumors they have. We’ve got the same concerns they do. The earliest we would probably know would be February, when the president’s budget comes out. We can’t wait till February to tell our story and make the case. We’ve got to work now."