Air Force details proposed aircraft cuts state by state

The Air Force's fiscal 2016 budget proposal, like the previous budget, calls for eliminating A-10 units across the service while giving new missions to Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units.

The service on Friday released details on how those and other changes would affect bases stateside and overseas.

"The force structure actions in this budget represent a careful balance between readiness today and tomorrow. World events have increased demand on our Air Force in the near term, but we can't afford to lose sight of tomorrow's threats," Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said in a news release. "Honoring our commitment to the combatant commanders to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, command and control and close air support requires not only that we provide those capabilities today, but also that we are ready to provide them in the fights of the future."

The plan includes changes to these fleets:

A-10. The Air Force wants to retire all of its 283 A-10s over four years, beginning in fiscal 2016. Active-duty units that would lose their aircraft with no follow-on mission are at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada; Moody Air Force Base, Georgia; Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; and in Germany. The Reserve A-10 units at Davis-Monthan and Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, would receive F-16s in fiscal 2019. All Air National Guard A-10 units would receive new missions. The unit at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, would transition to an associated F-15E unit in fiscal 2016. The unit at Martin State Airport in Maryland would receive eight C-130Js in fiscal 2018. Fort Wayne, Indiana, would receive 21 F-16s in fiscal 2019. Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, would receive eight KC-135s in fiscal 2017.

U-2. The Air Force would keep its U-2 unit at Beale Air Force Base, California, flying until 2019 when it expects to receive additional RQ-4 Global Hawks with an enhanced sensor payload. In 2019, the base would lose its 32 U-2s along with 11 associated T-38s used by pilots there in training. The base would also add a Global Hawk Reserve associate unit.

E-3. The Air Force would retire seven of its E-3 Sentrys in 2019 at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. The unit is active with a Reserve association, and the Reserve unit would receive four KC-135s in fiscal 2019. The service is delaying the E-3 retirement to "sustain command and control capacity" through 2019.

E-8C. The Air Force would retain five E-8C Joint STARS at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, while the modernization plan for the fleet would be delayed until 2023.

EC-130H. The seven active-duty EC-130Hs at Davis-Monthan would be cut in fiscal 2016, while the service would keep eight of the Compass Call aircraft "to continue to provide support to the essential Combatant Command requirements." The service is looking to develop "alternative capabilities to fully replace" the Compass Call fleet, but there is no current timeline for the replacement.

C-130s. The service says it has too many C-130s, but has been directed by Congress to keep its Hercules flying. The fiscal 2016 proposal seeks to cut 28 of the aging C-130Hs, mostly flown by the Air National Guard, by 2019 and to keep 300 of the H and J models. However, the locations have not yet been determined.

The Air Force is studying recommendations by the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force on how to balance its mobility fleet across the active and reserve components. The service said it will finalize "its mission area and force composition analysis in the coming months."

The proposal would cut National Guard C-130s in Puerto Rico, where the unit will transfer to RC-26 Metroliner aircraft transferred from Oklahoma. Two C-130s from Oklahoma will transfer to Missouri, where they will be used for training.

The 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard would receive two C-130s for training. The unit flies specially equipped C-130s with skis for arctic missions, and would use standard H models for training.

F-15Cs. The Air Force wants to cut 31 of its F-15Cs, most from RAF Lakenheath, England. Air National Guard units in Oregon, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Florida and California would also lose F-15Cs, but in fewer numbers than the service planned last year.

The Lakenheath F-15s would fly until 2017, to meet requirements under a fiscal 2016 European Reassurance Initiative.

RC-26. The fiscal 2015 budget set up an MC-12 Air National Guard unit in Oklahoma, which had been flying RC-26 Metroliners. As a result, nine RC-26s would head to Puerto Rico in 2016 to replace C-130s, and two would go to New Mexico for a formal training unit.