Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

BASE-CLOSING COMMISSION: Nellis base could gain 30 fighters

Jets would come from Missouri, Idaho, New Mexico

WASHINGTON -- Nellis Air Force Base would gain 30 fighter jets from other bases if recommendations by the federal base-closing commission are approved by President Bush and Congress, a panel spokesman said Tuesday.

The additional planes would include 18 F-15s and 12 F-16s, according to Jim Schaefer, director of communications for the Base Closure and Realignment Commission that completed its work on Saturday.

Most of the aircraft would come from an air guard station at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in Missouri and from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho that are among the bases that would be reorganized, Schaefer said.

Seven of the F-16s are expected to be transferred to Nellis from Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico as a result of commission action last week.

"It's hard to say the exact number of new jobs that might result from this, but there should be a favorable impact on the (Nellis) base," Schaefer said.

Nellis Air Force Base, a major air combat training installation, stood to be a winner from the base-closing round. Reorganizations proposed by the Pentagon would have expanded the Las Vegas base by more than 1,400 personnel and 48 fighter jets.

The Southern Nevada base is assigned 42 F-15s and 53 F-16s, according to Capt. Daniel Dubois, a Nellis spokesman, although the Air Force is looking to retire more than a dozen of the F-16s and reassign nine others to California and Oklahoma air guard posts.

The base-closing panel completed its deliberations on Pentagon proposals to close or consolidate 62 major bases and 775 smaller ones.

On Nevada bases, the commissioners rejected proposals to close the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot and to strip the Reno Air National Guard of its eight C-130 cargo planes.

The nine-member base-closing commission rejected some of the Pentagon's proposals for the Air Force while making other adjustments that affected Nellis. For instance, the panel voted to allow Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska to keep 18 F-16s that would otherwise have been transferred to Southern Nevada.

The outcome of other proposals remained unclear, with final decisions to be left to the Air Force, officials said.

"The BRAC Commission made several changes regarding the Air Force," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "As a result of these changes, the Air Force may be required to adjust their original realignment plan once the BRAC process is complete. If we should see any changes, I would expect them to be very minor overall.

"The Air Force and the Department of Defense recognizes that Nellis is the premier training facility for combat pilots," Gibbons said. "I am confident the overall plan to increase Nellis AFB's personnel and aircraft will remain firmly intact."

Nellis still may lose some aircraft through Air Force reorganization. The military has proposed to retire 15 F-16s, while sending another six to the Fresno Air Terminal Air Guard Station in California and three to the air guard station at Tulsa International Airport.

The base-closing panel also recommended shifting an F110 engine repair shop from Nellis to Hill Air Force Base as part of a plan to centralize such repairs at the Utah base.

Bush is expected to receive the commission's recommendations Sept. 8.

If the president accepts the report, Congress must vote to approve all of the recommendations or reject all of them.