Big cuts for USAF!

[Henk Voortwijs]

Air Force cutting its fighter fleet
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 15, 2010 11:31:16 EST

By fall, 250 fighters will be in the boneyard and the 4000 airmen who fly
or fix them will have new jobs, according to an officer overseeing the
aircraft drawdown.
The first planes head for retirement April 1; if all goes as planned, the
last ones will be off the flight line by Sept 30, the end of the fiscal
year.
“Units have already started to put people on the move list,” said Col
Jack Forsythe, with the Air Staff’s strategic plans directorate.
The Air Force unveiled the retirement plans in May but needed
congressional approval to decommission the fighters, including primary, attrition
reserve and backup inventory aircraft. The permission came Dec 19, when
President Obama signed the Defense Department’s fiscal 2010 budget. Included in the
budget, however, are stipulations that the Air Force write several reports
explaining, for example, the rationale for the retirements and the impact
that the smaller fleet will have on Operation Noble Eagle, the military
operations related to homeland security.
“All the reports have been written and are under review,” Forsythe said. “
We expect to have them to Congress in time for the 1 April deadline.”
Retiring the planes — 135 F-15C/D Eagles, 112 F-16C Fighting Falcons and three
A-10 Thunderbolts — should save $350 million in fiscal 2010 and $3.5
billion in the next five years, Forsythe said.
The service hopes the saved dollars help pay for new aircraft.
The positions assigned to the fighters will be transferred to growing
missions such as surveillance and intelligence analysis, said Forsythe,
who was operations group commander for F-117 Nighthawks at Holloman AFB, NM,
when those jets were retired two years ago.
Planes will leave a few at a time and personnel will transfer when their
fighters are retired. Maintainers and life support personnel will be
reassigned to similar duties, Forsythe said.
Most pilots will continue to fly but may have to cross-train into new
planes.
Last year, the Air Force identified many of the wings and squadrons to be
decommissioned, but is still drawing up specific Air Force-wide retirement
plans.

WHAT’S IN, WHAT’S OUT
Changes announced by the service last year*:

F-15C/D
Eglin AFB, FL: 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron loses two Eagles.
Elmendorf AFB, AK: 19FS loses 24 jets.
Hickam AFB, HI: 199FS loses 15 aircraft.
Langley AFB, VA: 71FS loses 18 airplanes.
RAF Lakenheath, England: 48FW loses six Eagles.
Tyndall AFB, FL: 325FW loses 48 fighters.

F-16
Fort Wayne IAP, IN: 163FS loses 18 fighters.
Hill AFB, UT: 34FS loses 24 Falcons.
Kirtland AFB, NM: 188FS loses 18 jets.
Luke AFB, AZ: 56FW loses 28 fighters.
Spangdahlem AB, Germany: 52FW loses 18 Falcons.

A-10
Barksdale AFB, LA: 47FS loses three fighters.
Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ: 354FS loses three Thunderbolts
and 358FS loses three aircraft.
Moody AFB, GA: 74FS loses three aircraft and 75FS loses three Warthogs.
Fort Wayne IAP, IN: 163FS gains 18 A-10s.
Osan AB, South Korea: 25FS loses three Thunderbolts.
Whiteman AFB, MO: 303FS loses three jets.
*The aircraft numbers don’t include the backup and attrition reserve
aircraft the units are retiring.

Credits: Al Stern from MilRadioComms Group

[Maurizio]

The 148 FW at Duluth will start receiving 18 Block 50 Vipers next April, almost certainly from the 22 FS.

[Le Addeur noir]

The 148 FW at Duluth will start receiving 18 Block 50 Vipers next April, almost certainly from the 22 FS.

Were these jets not earmarked to replace Block 40 F-16C/D with the 36th FS at Osan AB,RoK?.

[Eddie]

F-16 drawdown begins at Spangdahlem

by Senior Airman Kali L. Gradishar
52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

4/26/2010 - SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany (AFNS) -- Six F-16 Fighting Falcons are scheduled to depart here April 27 as the first step for the 52nd Fighter Wing staff in the Combat Air Force Restructuring plan expected to save the Air Force approximately $355 million in fiscal 2010 and $3.5 billion during the next five fiscal years.

An additional six aircraft are scheduled to depart the base April 30.

"The Combat Air Force Restructuring plan is an initiative to retire approximately 250 legacy fighters across the Air Force so we can use the savings from those retirements to reinvest; to build a capabilities-based bridge to our fifth generation fighter fleet," said Lt. Col. Aaron Piepkorn, the Spangdahlem Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century director and CAF Restructure project officer. "Basically, it takes the money and reinvests it back into fighters, bombers, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, so they can upgrade their capabilities creating a smaller, more capable, more flexible, more lethal fighter force."

The CAF restructuring plan is intended to create a wave of savings in costs and manpower positions Air Force-wide.

The six aircraft are the first of 21 that are scheduled to depart the base. The remainder of the aircraft will depart in increments scheduled to be complete by the end of May as part of CAF restructuring. Twenty aircraft will transition to the 148th Fighter Wing with the Minnesota Air National Guard, while one F-16 will transfer to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The newer Block 50 F-16s departing Spangdahlem AB will replace older aircraft at these installations.

"The airplanes that are leaving here are not retiring; they're replacing older airplanes that will retire," Colonel Piepkorn said. "So while 250 airplanes will retire in fiscal year 2010, the aircraft were losing from Spangdahlem will not retire because they're some of the newer F-16 Block 50s the Air Force has."

Additional plans include the joining of the two F-16 squadrons.

As a result of the drawdown of F-16s, the 22nd and 23rd Fighter Squadrons will transition to a single, slightly larger squadron.

One proposal is to inactivate both the 22nd and 23rd Fighter squadrons and rename the single squadron in accordance with historical precedence, Colonel Piepkorn said.

To ensure the CAF restructuring initiative runs smoothly, a number of agencies on base have been working together to plan for the drawdown of aircraft and manning positions.

The staff at U.S. Air Forces in Europe and the Air Staff have been very involved, Colonel Piepkorn said. "And here on base, it's been a variety of units to include the operations and maintenance groups getting the planes ready, as well as the manpower folks at the (52nd Force Support Squadron)."

Along with the reduction of aircraft, "approximately 500 manpower positions will be affected with military members either moving to another available position in the 52nd FW or relocating to another base. No U.S. or local national civilian positions will be reduced," said Capt. Erin Pinkston, the manpower and personnel flight commander.

Military members will depart when they were originally scheduled to, but there will be a reduced number of in-bound Airmen coming into the affected units during the next few years. This will enable the wing to meet the requirement to reduce manpower by approximately 500 positions, Captain Pinkston said.

Source: http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123201605