TUCSON, Ariz. (Tribune News Service) — Tucson’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base will become home to a new special-operations wing as its A-10 “Warthog” ground-support jets are finally retired over the next few years, under a new Air Force plan.
Local officials were recently briefed on the plan, which would establish a new “power projection wing” under the Air Force Special Operations Command at D-M, joining the base’s related combat search and rescue mission.
Tucson-area leaders have been anxious about what will happen to D-M as the Air Force looks to retire its biggest flying mission — three squadrons of A-10 Thunderbolt II jets — by the end of the decade with no clear replacement mission in sight.
Now, a new mission is in the works.
At the urging of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Tucson) and other Arizona lawmakers, Air Force officials recently briefed local government officials and D-M supporters on a plan to establish a new wing of the Air Force Special Operations Command at D-M.
The Pentagon’s proposed fiscal 2024 budget includes $5 million in funding for an Environmental Impact Statement and an area development plan to establish the “492nd Power Projection Wing” at Davis-Monthan. The Air Force also plans to increase combat search and rescue operations at the base.
An Air Force “Site Activation Task Force“ has already begun work to determine requirements and plan the transition for the new wing.
The head of the DM50, a Tucson support group for the base, said the new mission helps ensure the future of D-M and its billion-dollar contribution to the local economy for decades to come.
“We’re very optimistic about the future of D-M,” DM50 chairwoman Linda Morales said. “From what we’ve been told it’s an enduring, 30-year-plus mission for D-M, and it’s no loss of personnel, so it maintains the personnel levels, the economic impact that we’ve enjoyed.”
Full story here
Having separation anxiety over the Hawgs. Progress... humbug.
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