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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Save the Tacos
By Charles D. Brunt
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
Rep. Martin Heinrich said it's likely to be months before the "Tacos" learn whether they will get a new mission and, if so, whether it will involve fighter jets.
Hanging in the balance are about 1,092 jobs based at Kirtland Air Force Base, one-third of them held by full-time National Guardsmen, and the prestige of a fighter wing that started out flying P-51 Mustangs in 1947.
The mission of the wing's supporters is clear: Save the Tacos.
The leading strategy: Find a way to keep some kind of flying mission until new aircraft can be assigned to the wing.
"This whole issue of a mission 'to be determined' is incredibly unfair to the 150th," Heinrich, the first-term congressman from Albuquerque, said earlier this month. "It's the only wing in that situation, and I don't think it's at all acceptable."
The 150th "is the only Air National Guard unit in the United States where their future mission is listed as 'to be determined,' " said Stuart Purviance, executive director of the Kirtland Partnership Committee and a member of a panel formed by Mayor Martin Chávez to try to save the Kirtland Air Force-based Tacos. "That's kind of concerning."
Missing a mission
The Tacos' future as a fighter wing came into question in April with the Pentagon's decision to cap purchases of the new F-22 Raptor — a stealth fighter the Tacos were hoping would replace their 21 aging F-16C Fighting Falcons — and to speed up purchases of the less-costly but equally stealthy F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter.
That plan also accelerates the retirement of 249 fourth-generation fighters during fiscal year 2010, including 112 F-15s, 134 F-16s and three A-10 Thunderbolt IIs. All of the Tacos' F-16s are included in the early retirement plan.
Although seven Air National Guard fighter wings are slated to lose their fighters, only two fly F-16s — the Tacos and the 122nd Fighter Wing based at Fort Wayne, Ind., according to the National Guard Bureau.
The 122nd, however, is set to replace its F-16s with the A-10, an ungainly but lethal close-air-support fighter known as the Warthog.
Second Lt. Rebecca Metzger, public affairs officer for the 122nd Fighter Wing, said the planned transition to sub-sonic A-10s is dependent on funding contained in the developing 2010 defense budget.
Like the 150th, the 122nd hopes to remain a fighter wing, Metzger said, and to eventually return to supersonic, fifth-generation F-22s or F-35s.
"I think that's the hope of any fighter wing," she said.
One advantage of the A-10, Metzger said, is the extendability of its service life. Originally set at 8,000 flight hours, the A-10 service life is extendable to at least 12,000 hours — nearly twice that of the F-16.
Bridging the gap
When it became evident that the Tacos would lose their F-16s, Maj. Gen. Kenny Montoya, adjutant general of the New Mexico National Guard, said the 150th would not survive the anticipated seven-year gap between the time its F-16s are retired and F-35s are made available to Air National Guard units.
Although Montoya outlined several potential paths to keeping the wing active, ranging from training the Iraqi Air Force to fly the
single-engine turboprop Hawker Beechcraft AT-6s to operating unmanned drones like the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, the consensus was to work toward remaining a fighter wing.
Heinrich, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has become the lead horse in seeking a new mission for the Tacos.
Earlier this month, Heinrich added a provision to the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act that would prohibit the retirement of the 150th's F-16s until the Air Force submits a detailed plan that includes a follow-up mission for the Tacos.
The bill, which passed the House on Thursday also authorizes at least $344.6 million for continuing operation and maintenance of the 249 fighters slated for retirement, and at least $10.5 million to sustain the fleet.
"I would like to see (the 150th) back in fighter aircraft," Heinrich said earlier this month. "But if we're going to get there, we need to make sure that we bridge the gap between when we start bedding down the F-35 — or when any F-22s become available — and now. That means we need a mission for these guys for next year."
A span in that bridge could be wringing more life out of the Tacos' current fleet of F-16s.
Extension program
The F-16 has a typical airframe life of about 6,000 flying hours. That can be extended another 2,000 hours by "service life extension programs," which essentially rebuilds and reinforces the fuselage and wings at Falcon Star, a refurbishment program at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, at a cost of about $1.2 million per aircraft.
Each of the Tacos' F-16Cs, which were built in 1986-87, have racked up between 4,300 and 5,700 flight hours, wing officials said.
Ten of those F-16s have been through Falcon Star, and two are there now. Once refurbished, the F-16s, which the 150th flies about 200 hours per year, can last another decade.
But unless Congress provides sufficient funding in the 2010 defense budget, there won't be enough money to refurbish the Tacos' other nine F-16s, Heinrich said.
"It would be very hard to successfully take that money from someplace else right now. It's a pretty lean budget," he said.
"I think that, given the limited number of fighter aircraft (available) with the canceling of the F-22 program, and (delivery of) the F-35 still being out as far as it is, it looks likely that these aircraft are probably going to go someplace else. They're not going to go to the boneyard," he said. "But that in and of itself has not been enough to ward off the problem that we have with the Tacos' future mission."
Fighting for fighters
Heinrich said the current strategy is to convince Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz that the Tacos should remain a flying — if not a fighting — wing.
"I've been hammering on the issue that this is what these guys do well and keeping them in the air in some form or fashion is critical to continuing to play on their strengths and what they can best offer our armed forces and the defense of our nation," he said.
"I think that's an argument they find compelling. That's why we've been pushing so hard for some sort of a mission that involves piloting aircraft as opposed to say, doing UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) or one of these other missions that we've seen floated."
In the meantime, the 150th and its nearly 30 F-16 pilots are left wondering which "stick" lies in their future — one in the cockpit, or the short end of it.
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