| | Thursday September 9, 2010 |
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| House bill passes, would delay Tyndall F-15 drawdown |
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The expected drawdown of Tyndall Air Force Base’s F-15 squadrons might be pushed back to April 2010, after the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill. 16-12-2009 - TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, FL -- The bill included a provision by Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, to postpone the Tyndall F-15 drawdown until April 1, 2010.
In November, after a meeting with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, Boyd said the Air Force wanted to start the F-15 drawdown at Tyndall on Jan.1 and complete it by Oct. 1, 2010, but were still awaiting Congressional approval.
Boyd could not be reached Wednesday for comment through his Washington, D.C., press office.
In a release, Boyd said the House bill also required the Air Force to provide Congress with detailed reports on the drawdown’s long-term effects on defense capabilities and local area economies.
He said the bill represented “a tremendous legislative victory for Bay County,” and put Tyndall in a strategic position to be a key component of the Air Force’s next generation fighter infrastructure.
Boyd’s provision, according to the release, also calls for an independent review by the Federally Funded Research and Development Center to analyze the effect the drawdown would have on our nation’s combat air forces and require the Air Force to submit a cost-benefit analysis of its proposal to move F-15 training to Kingsley, Ore.
Before the announcement of Wednesday’s House vote, Bay Defense Alliance President Tom Neubauer said his organization still was pursuing a replacement mission at Tyndall for the F-15.
Neubauer said that securing more F-22s at Tyndall, a plan he and Boyd promoted after their November meeting with Schwartz, still was the BDA’s focus.
“It’s a good fit and a quick fit,” Neubauer said.
There are 29 F-22 Raptors at Tyndall assigned to the 325th Operations Group’s 43rd Fighter Squadron, according to Tyndall Air Force Base’s Web site.
The Air Force announced plans in May to accelerate the retirement of the F-15s assigned to Tyndall.
The House bill will now be taken up by the U.S. Senate.
In his release, Boyd announced he had also secured more than $17 million in federal funding to develop advanced defense technologies at both the Air Force Research Lab at Tyndall and the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City.
Projects cited by Boyd in the bill included:
• $4 million to help the Air Force derive 50 percent of its aviation fuel from non-petroleum-based sources by 2016.
• $3.04 million to enhance deployable command and control capabilities and interoperability of emergency operation systems.
• $2.88 million to support the development and sustainment of Special Forces equipment.
• $2.4 million to develop tow cables for vital Navy assets.
• $2 million to create a better, safer, cheaper, environmentally-friendly fire suppression technology critical to Air Force installations throughout the country.
• $1.52 million to assist the Navy in developing a non-gasoline engine for Special Forces equipment.
• $1.44 million to enhance command and control by creating a common software program to service various naval platforms.
Source: newsherald.com
Photo: USAF
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