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Air Force announces FY 2010 force structure realignments

  • Published
ARLINGTON, Va. --  The U.S. Air Force announced its proposed force structure realignments for Fiscal Year 2010 today, but only a few of the personnel and aircraft changes affected the Air National Guard.

The announcement reflects funding for an increase in full-time positions supporting the air sovereignty alert (ASA) mission in FY 2010, and many of the cuts in the fighter force were directed at the regular Air Force, said Randy Noller, a public affairs officer with the National Guard Bureau.

"The ANG must remain relevant to the Total Force and embrace expansion and change," he said adding that the ANG continues to work with the Air Force to ensure the long-term stability of the ASA mission.

A total of 51 fighter aircraft will be retired from the Air Guard's fleet, including 18 F-16s from the 163rd Fighter Squadron at Fort Wayne International Airport, Ind.; 18 F-16s from the 188th Fighter Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; nine F-16s from the 138th Fighter Squadron in Syracuse, N.Y.; and six A-10s from the 103rd Fighter Squadron at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Willow Grove, Pa.

The Air National Guard will gain 20 MQ-1B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, including four at the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing (RW) at March Joint Air Reserve Base, Calif., five at the 174th Fighter Wing in Syracuse, N.Y., six at the 119RW at Hector International Airport, N.D., and five at the 147RW at Ellington Airport in Texas. All are part of the bed down in alignment with the Total Force Initiative. Current overseas contingency operations will affect a transfer of ownership from theater to these units.

As a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, the 159th Fighter Squadron at Jacksonville International Airport, Fla., will gain three F-15 primary aircraft authorizations, the 107th Fighter Squadron at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich., will gain six A-10 PAAs and the 179th Airlift Wing (AW) at Mansfield-Lahm Regional Airport in Ohio will lose eight C-130s.

Also in 2010, the 139AW will transition from the C-130H2 to the C-130H2.5 aircraft. The unit will temporarily decrease to eight aircraft during the transition. The 156AW at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico will lose two C-130E aircraft due to scheduled retirement, and the 189AW at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., will replace eight C-130E models that are scheduled for retirement with eight new C-130Hs.

"An environment of competing budget priorities forced the Air Force to make difficult force structure choices for the Total Air Force," said Noller.

The force structure announcement, which can be found at http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123156183, includes a summary of military and civilian personnel changes and reassignment of aircraft at Air Force bases for the upcoming fiscal year. It does not include programmatic actions for FY11 and beyond.

It specifies the force structure changes experienced by the Total Force - active duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve. Implementation of these actions will occur only after completion of appropriate environmental analyses.