{"id":30491,"date":"2023-11-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-lawmakers-support-bill-to-protect-air-national-guard-fighter-squadrons\/"},"modified":"2023-11-25T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T14:00:00","slug":"colorado-lawmakers-support-bill-to-protect-air-national-guard-fighter-squadrons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-lawmakers-support-bill-to-protect-air-national-guard-fighter-squadrons\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado lawmakers support bill to protect Air National Guard fighter squadrons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
A U.S. Air Force supersonic B-1 bomber flies at the Dubai Air Show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. (AP Photo\/Jon Gambrell)<\/span>Jon Gambrell<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colorado lawmakers are part of a bipartisan effort to protect the nation\u2019s Air National Guard fighter squadrons.<\/p>\n

This spring, six house members, including Democratic Rep. Jason Crow and Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn introduced the Fighter Force Preservation and Recapitalization Act. The goal of the bill is simple: ensure a minimum number of Air National Guard squadrons. Without Congressional action, the 140th Wing with the Colorado Air National Guard at Buckley could be among those on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Crow said the issue is the Air Force\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Air Force is trying to do is save a bunch of money because they don\u2019t have a financial shortfall with their long-term budget,\u201d Crow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to save money by cutting Air National Guard fighter wings,\u201d Crow explained, \u201cWhich is exactly the opposite that they should be doing because those fighter wings are actually a lot less expensive to maintain, and some of the most experienced pilots.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Air Force plans to phase out older aircraft, like the A-10s, F-15s, and F-16s, which the 140th and others fly. At a conference in May, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said they have to retire some of those to free up resources moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having to divest some of those to free up resources to move forward,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cThere\u2019s been resistance to that in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained how hard it is locally \u201cto divest aircraft\u201d that \u201care in your communities.\u201d Kendall added they\u2019re trying to replace old aircraft with similar models where they can.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that last part that has raised concerns from congressional lawmakers like Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska, a retired Air Force general, who is leading the charge on his side of the aisle.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy overriding concern is this, for every new fighter they bring on, they\u2019re deactivating or getting rid of 2.5 fighters,\u201d Bacon said.<\/p>\n

The bill lawmakers are pushing would ensure that there is a one-for-one swap, for every one fighter plane that gets deactivated, another fighter would replace it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy second concern is the Guard does most of our Homeland Security Investigations missions and they are really your backbone for experienced fighter pilots and experienced fighter maintenance,\u201d Bacon said. \u201cAnd the Air Force keeps deactivating fighter squadrons in the Guard and that means you lose all that experience \u2026 pilots and maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bacon recognizes that not all these planes are suited for a potential conflict with China, but they are relevant in the Middle East, in Europe and to defend the homeland. The bill would also put on the books a minimum number of aircraft and fighter squads, no fewer than 25 squadrons.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of Senators, led by Colorado\u2019s Sen. John Hickenlooper and Idaho\u2019s Sen. Mike Crapo, have introduced companion legislation in that chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t have a strategy to secure the future of the 140th Wing \u2013 along with Air National Guard Units across the country \u2013 we\u2019ll lose experienced pilots and jeopardize the strength of our fighting force. Our bill ensures this won\u2019t happen,\u201d Hickenlooper said.<\/p>\n

Still, they all acknowledge it will be a steep legislative hill to climb given the current budgetary climate at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

Bacon said that if the legislation helps move forward discussions to ensure the Air Force has the right budget to maintain active duty and Guard squadrons, it will still be a win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A U.S. Air Force supersonic B-1 bomber flies at the Dubai Air Show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. (AP Photo\/Jon Gambrell)Jon Gambrell Colorado lawmakers are part of a bipartisan effort to protect the nation\u2019s Air National Guard fighter squadrons. This spring, six house members, including Democratic Rep. Jason Crow and Republican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30491"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}