WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Thursday urged the Air Force to temporarily shift a few of its fighters from active-duty units to guard and reserve squadrons to keep up balance because the service retires older air frames.
The letter, which was signed by 16 senators and 27 representatives including Rep. John James, R-Mich., asks Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall to contemplate an idea called “fleet leveling” as a brief solution to make sure the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve doesn’t lose a few of its fighter squadrons or experience.
“Absent intervention, the ANG is slated to lose two fighter missions in the following [few] years or will probably be forced to proceed operating with older models,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Air Force is within the means of retiring its fleet of rugged but aging A-10 Warthog attack aircraft by the tip of this decade. Two guard squadrons will lose their A-10s in the method — the 107th Fighter Squadron at Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base, which is in James’s district, in 2027 and the 104th Fighter Squadron at Maryland’s Warfield Air National Guard Base in 2025 — however the Air Force has not yet identified an aircraft to interchange them. Most of the lawmakers who signed the letter represent states or districts that could possibly be affected by the retirements.
If the Warthogs there retire before a substitute fighter is found, James and the opposite lawmakers worry the squadrons at Selfridge and Warfield would lose their missions and result in a lack of experienced, “combat-proven,” and hard-to-replace pilots, maintainers and support personnel.
Other signatories to the letter include Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Debbie Dingell, R-Mich., and Lisa McClain, R-Mich., in addition to Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Ben Cardin, D-Md., and John Kennedy, R-La.
The Air Force has for years struggled to coach and keep enough pilots and maintainers, and the lawmakers worry the issue could possibly be exacerbated if these guard squadrons lose their Warthogs with no substitute mission. This could force the service to spend significant amounts of cash and energy training replacements, they said.
“It takes greater than a decade to provide an experienced fighter pilot,” they wrote. “Unlike the lively component, closing [a guard or reserve] fighter squadron leads to the everlasting lack of a whole lot of deeply experienced personnel. That have, and the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars invested to coach them, are lost eternally.”
Fleet leveling could be a “stopgap measure” to keep up the guard and reserves’ combat capability while industry builds more fighters to interchange the retiring jets, lawmakers said.
A short lived shift of fighters could also help reinforce other guard squadrons that fly older and outdated F-16s and F-15Cs, the lawmakers said.
“Should these pilots be called to service on the request of combatant commanders or our military at large, fleet leveling will be certain that these pilots are ready and in a position to answer the decision,” they said.
Air National Guard director Lt. Gen. Michael Loh has also backed leveling the fighter fleet to strike a more even balance of jets across the service’s components. During a panel on the September 2022 Air Space Cyber conference hosted by the Air and Space Forces Association, Loh identified that the guard makes up 27% of the service’s fighter force, yet it has lower than 7% of the service’s F-35s and fewer 11% of its F-22s.
“At once, there’s huge pressure on the fighter fleet, and we’re at a capability and a capability issue,” Loh said on the 2022 AFA. “How can we get after that? Level the fleet. … We’re sitting on A-10s, F-15Cs, [older] F-16s, each [the guard and reserve]. We’d like a powerful, healthy recapitalization plan.”
Noah Sadler, a spokesman for James, said the congressman thinks Boeing-made F-15EX could be a very good candidate to balance the fleet and is attempting to bring those recent jets to Selfridge.
An amendment to the House’s version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which was proposed by James in July, would require the Air Force to purchase two more F-15EXs and send them to a guard base with no substitute for its retiring Warthogs. The Senate’s NDAA doesn’t have the same provision, but James hopes it’s going to find yourself in the ultimate version.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.