Defense chief seeks $1 billion for major air combat training exercises at Nellis

Pentagon planners are giving Nellis and Creech Air Force bases a big boost in the president's budget request that should keep them flying high for the next five years to train fighter pilots and test the nation's latest high-tech aircraft.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday he is requesting a $1 billion increase for at least 34 major air combat training exercises and improvements to training ranges to the north of Nellis during the next five years. The Creech base, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a hub for remotely piloted Predator and Reaper aircraft operations vital to fighting the global war on terrorism.

"This is a critical place and is going to stay a critical place. And, it's going to get budgetary priority," Carter said during a stop at the Nellis base, where a Red Flag air combat exercise is underway through Feb. 12.

He called it a big boost, but didn't provide spending figures from his budget proposal and previous years, especially 2014, when Red Flag exercises were reduced in number. A Nellis spokesman could not provide that information Thursday.

Carter was responding to a Las Vegas Review-Journal question about what's in store from the Pentagon's budget request for the two bases in terms of operations, personnel, assets, cutbacks and advances.

He couldn't discuss specifics of the budget request because those details won't be released until next week. But he said the request contains "mostly advances" in funding for Southern Nevada bases and ranges.

"This place is incredibly important to our Air Force now and in the future. Therefore, you can expect increased investments in the quality of the range; in the intensity of the training; the number of exercises conducted here; (and) the variety of aircraft that will be coming here," he said.

Carter said no other range complex allows "for our Air Force to train in a way that we have to today which is for a mission all the way to defeating ISIL now up to potentially being in a conflict with higher-end adversaries, more technologically advanced threats in the future."

The Air Force typically spends about $35 million per year on four Red Flag air combat exercises over the Nevada Test and Training Range, not counting a share of expenditures on air-to-surface Green Flag exercises that are held in conjunction with advanced ground forces training at the U.S. Army National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.

Only three Red Flag exercises were conducted during 2014 because of budget cutbacks from the sequester law.

Such one-of-a-kind training for pilots, maintenance crews and cyberintelligence teams makes Nellis "an enormously important installation," Carter said.

"That is reflected in our budget request where we're adding a billion dollars more for training of this kind," he said in a rescue helicopter maintenance hangar at Nellis on his third and final stop visiting military installations in Nevada and California. It was his second Nellis visit since August.

He emphasized the importance of maintenance personnel to the high-operations tempo Air Force effort in the Pentagon's $582 billion budget request, which will be the last under President Barack Obama's administration.

"We're doing all of this at the same time that we're modernizing the Air Force that you'll see in the future," he said, noting there'll be "new aircraft here on the ramps."

"You'll see the F-35, you'll see shortly the KC-46, the new tanker. And one day maybe you'll see, but maybe we won't show, a new bomber.

"And then there are other things you won't see because we like to have some surprises also for potential adversaries. But they fly around and they train here as well," Carter said.

During his visit, he also held a round-table discussion to gain insights from base leaders, pilots and intelligence experts on what capabilities and personnel Nellis offers, U.S. Air Force Wafare Center commander Maj. Gen. Jay Silveria said.

Carter also visited the 66th and 58th rescue squadrons and huddled with enlisted airmen from the 823rd Maintenance Squadron, a detachment at Nellis of the 23rd Wing at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia.

Nellis and Creech have a combined economic impact of more than $5 billion annually on the local economy. They account for more than 38,700 personnel and dependents including active duty, reserves, Air National Guard and civilian employees.

— Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2.