Everlasting fighter force for Kadena still an option: Air Force general

WASHINGTON — Nearly six months after the Air Force began withdrawing its aging F-15C and D Eagles from Kadena Air Base in Japan, the service remains to be attempting to determine its long-term plan to take care of a deterrent fighter presence on the Pacific region base.

And permanently stationing a brand new force of fighters at Kadena remains to be being considered, Lt. Gen. Richard Moore, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told Defense News.

In an interview on the Pentagon, Moore underscored the Air Force’s intent to maintain a fighter force on Okinawa to reassure allies within the Pacific region and deter potential adversaries, particularly China — even when what which may appear like isn’t yet settled.

“We’re committed to maintaining a presence at Kadena,” Moore said. “We understand presence is essential. We understand its value in deterrence. And so we’re going to proceed to take care of that — although there may be a price to be paid, that in our minds is well price it.”

Until a long-term solution presents itself, Moore said the Air Force will proceed its strategy of rotating newer fighters equivalent to the F-35, F-22 Raptor, F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon through Kadena as older F-15Cs and Ds return to the U.S. A few of Kadena’s F-15s will keep flying with the Air National Guard, and others are headed to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Arizona — also generally known as the Boneyard — for storage.

“We don’t want there to be any lapse in coverage,” Moore said. “So nonetheless long it takes to get to a everlasting solution, whatever that could be, we are going to proceed to take care of a presence at Kadena. And we’ll do this, as we at the moment are, with rotational forces.”

The Air Force’s announcement last October that it could retire the 18th Wing’s two squadrons of greater than 48 F-15s in phases over two years, and rotate newer fourth- and fifth-generation fighters to take their place, drew criticism. 4 Republican lawmakers soon sent Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin a letter expressing concern that now not having fighters permanently stationed on Okinawa sent the unsuitable message concerning the United States’ commitment to defending Japan.

Finding a technique to station a brand new, everlasting fighter force at Kadena stays an option, Moore said. But for that to develop into a reality, he said, it should require some careful balancing from the Air Force — and cooperation with Congress and the remainder of the Defense Department. With older fighters rapidly approaching retirement across the Air Force fleet, Kadena isn’t the one base in need of latest fighters.

“It comes all the way down to the variety of aircraft which are available, the variety of aircraft that must divest, and the variety of locations that need to take care of a presence,” he said. “We’re working that balance, and as soon as we will, we’ll transition to an answer at Kadena.”

Moore said the Air Force made progress by requesting 72 latest fighters in its fiscal 2024 budget proposal, which it says is the minimum procurement mandatory to modernize its aging fighter fleet.

If Congress grants the Air Force’s request and funds the acquisition of 48 latest F-35As and 24 latest F-15EX Eagle IIs, the service will then should determine learn how to distribute those latest fighters, he said. A part of that may mean figuring out with Congress and combatant commanders to determine where the brand new 72 fighters are most in need, as older fighters retire.

“Definitely, we don’t make that call [on a long-term fighter solution for Kadena] ourselves,” Moore said. “That call is overseen by the Department of Defense, after which we’ll propose that to the Congress as a part of our budget proposals as soon as now we have a more everlasting solution [for Kadena] than now we have now.”

The prices of rotational fighters

Cycling squadrons of fighters through Kadena on short-term deployments has certain advantages, like keeping aircrews trained and sharp, Moore said.

However it does include other costs.

“Typically, these deployments are inclined to be readiness depleting, quite than readiness gaining,” he said. “That capability has to return from somewhere.”

There are only a handful of places where the Air Force can draw fighters to plug the gap at Kadena, Moore said, equivalent to from other bases within the Pacific theater, Europe, stateside, or from deployments to the Middle East. The demand for fighters within the U.S. Central Command region is lower now than it was in previous years, he said. However the region still needs a U.S. fighter presence, and the military’s Joint Staff decides learn how to balance those needs.

“In fact, there’s a bill to be paid,” Moore said. But “we understand presence [at Kadena] is essential. We understand its value in deterrence … that in our minds is well price” the value in readiness elsewhere.

Moore also has sounded further alarms in recent public appearances concerning the rapidly decaying state of the general F-15C fleet.

“Those aircraft aren’t going to be useful in [fiscal 2028], because they’re not going to still be flying,” Moore told the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces on March 29.

He told lawmakers in March that for each 10 F-15Cs that enter the depot for maintenance, only two come out.

Those other eight F-15Cs may very well be fixed up and brought out of the depot, Moore told Defense News — “but only with substantial investment.”

The Air Force reported having 149 F-15Cs and Ds in its fleet at the tip of fiscal 2023, and expects to whittle that all the way down to 92 by the tip of this 12 months.

Pacific Air Forces declined to say how most of the greater than 48 F-15s originally at Kadena are left, citing operational security.

For 4 of those departing Kadena F-15s, the flight home will likely be their last — and one other three won’t even find a way to get within the air.

“It’s imperative that the F-15Cs and Ds come back to the states,” Moore said. “There are seven airplanes at Kadena immediately that either won’t ever fly again, or will only fly once to get to the Boneyard. In order that they’re not particularly helpful in contributing to either presence or deterrence.”