Defense bill passes, not all as state wanted

— The 2013 defense authorization bill headed to the president’s desk Friday after Congress passed the $633 billion compromise measure, which includes more than $40 million in military construction projects for Arkansas but leaves the future of an Air National Guard wing in jeopardy.

The defense bill authorizes $528 billion for the Defense Department’s base budget, $17 billion for defense and nuclear programs in the Energy Department and $88.5 billion for the war in Afghanistan — an increase of $1.7 billion over President Barack Obama’s budget request.

The bill also eliminates deep personnel cuts across the Air National Guard and calls for a 1.7 percent pay raise with extensions to bonuses and special pay for U.S. service members.

It also increases funding and personnel to beef up security at embassies around the globe, which was added in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four people.

Both houses of Congress approved the measure by overwhelming numbers — the Senate 81-14 on Friday and the House 315-107 Thursday night.

All six members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted for the bill but not all elements of the pending law are favorable to Arkansas.

The bill allows the Air Force to follow through on its plan to replace the A-10 close air-support jets at Arkansas Air National Guard’s 188th Fighter Wing with a mission to fly drones remotely.

The state delegation has continually fought the plan, asking the Pentagon to justify the change, as the 188th has repeatedly deployed and proved to be cost-effective.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. took to the Senate floor before the vote Friday to share his frustration over the plan as allowed in the bill.

“I’m not going to object to this bill at all, but at one point I thought about it because I’m so upset — in fact my staff would say I’ve been livid,” he said. “About 10 months ago the Air Force came out with a new force structure that included taking an A-10 unit away from the Arkansas National Guard that is based in Fort Smith, Ark.”

The bill increases the 188th’s vulnerability to cuts but offers several boons for the state with more military construction funding than other states.

More than $26 million is authorized for a new maintenance hangar and $4 million for an expansion of the flight simulator complex at Little Rock Air Force Base. Another $6.8 million for a field maintenance shop at the Searcy Army National Guard Armory and continuing funding was authorized to complete a live-fire shoot house at Fort Chaffee.

The bill also saves a vital avionics upgrade to the C-130 fleet from cancellation.

“As hard as this has been for Fort Smith to swallow,” Pryor said, “I think even people in Fort Smith don’t want to jeopardize the defense bill.”

Sen. John Boozman, RArk., said the legislation is important to provide “troops with the resources and tools necessary to accomplish their missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, or wherever they may be assigned.”

The bill lacks any reference to the 188th or movement of A-10s to other units. Not being mentioned is exactly what makes the unit vulnerable, analysts say. Without specific language in the legislation prohibiting moving planes, the Air Force is free to pursue its plan to transition the unit to a nonflying mission.

The Arkansas delegation has been asking the Air Force for its data analysis and justification for ending the 188th’s flying mission. The Air Force told the delegation recently that the decision was based on an umbrella plan of having one National Guard flying mission per state. Arkansas has two — the 189th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base is the second.

“I think [the Air Force] made an arbitrary decision here. I don’t think it’s in our national interest here, I don’t think it’s in the interest of our national security,” Pryor said, “and I’m just putting people on notice that this fight is not over.”

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told the Senate he understands Pryor’s frustration, “And we have promised ... we will have extensive hearings on this whole issue of Guard Air Force relationships and force structure for the 21st century and we appreciate his commitment to his outstanding members of the Guard.”

The bill creates a National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force, to look at future personnel, systems and infrastructure needs. The commission’s eight members will be appointed by the president and the chairman and ranking member of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.

It is not clear whether that commission will look at the Air Force’s current plan as it affects the 188th or future plans after that.

If the Air Force follows through with its plan to trade A-10s for drones at the 188th, it will leave hundreds of fulltime aircraft maintenance personnel without jobs and ground the nation’s most indemand A-10 unit. Some of the 188th’s 20 A-10s would be retired and others would shift to other units, some of which have been found unfit to deploy in the past.

The 188th was called on its second Afghanistan deployment this summer after another unit wasn’t ready to deploy.

Maj. Chris Heathscott, spokesman for the Arkansas National Guard, confirmed Friday that the National Guard Bureau called the 188th last week and asked if it would deploy to fill in for another A-10 unit that was not ready to deploy.

Both units for which the 188th has been asked to deploy are to keep their planes under the Air Force plan.

Pryor told his fellow senators the request for the 188th to deploy right now as the Air Force prepared to take away its planes was, “The ultimate slap in the face.”

In addition to the commission looking at force structure, the defense bill also creates a commission to look at the C-130AMP avionics upgrade program that has been in development for more than a decade with the help of the Arkansas National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing. The 189th is to be the training hub for the upgraded C-130.

The C-130 AMP was moving into its final testing phase in January when the Air Force froze the program.

The bill’s call for a costbenefit analysis spared the program that is necessary for the aging C-130 fleet by upgrading avionics in older models to satellite-based communication and navigation equipment that is required to cross European airspace.

Maj. Gen. Bill Wofford, Arkansas’ adjutant general, said he was surprised to see the AMP upgrade stay in the defense budget, adding that an avionics upgrade — either the current configuration or a limited version — is necessary to keep the aging fleet viable.

“If you can’t fly them overseas or into combat, what good are they?” he said of the technology. “I think it’s a good thing to keep it in the budget for a cost-benefit analysis to see if this is the right way to go.”

The 189th has kept the five C-130AMP airplanes parked on its ramp at Little Rock Air Force Base in flyable storage status since the program was grounded in January. That has required the addition of maintenance personnel to make sure the planes are ready to fly if the freeze is lifted.

Defense authorization legislation sets the budget for the military, but it does not guarantee appropriation — distribution — of the funds necessary to meet all the approved projects.

The bill calls for the two commissions to be established within three months of the bill’s signing. But funding of the budget remains in question as the president and Congress remained Friday at a stalemate in budget negotiations.

“We have significant cuts now going forward in the future. If sequestration goes into effect, all of this would dramatically change. Deciding how much money there is to appropriate is the root of the discussions now,” Boozman said. “This authorization is based on current law, so we’ll have to see how current negotiations affect things. There’s lots of moving parts right now.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/22/2012

Upcoming Events