Luke Air Force Base plans to downsize its military and civilian workforce by 7 percent and its F-16 fighter fleet by 25 planes to meet federal mandates issued three years ago.
Brig. Gen. Tom Jones, Luke’s commander, said the plan would be carried out over the next year and a half if approved by top Air Force officials.
The practical impact on businesses near the base would be minimal, base officials say, because local military units with enough personnel to roughly offset the loss of jobs at Luke are planning to move to the base.
Part of the plan proposes that the 63rd Fighter Squadron, begun during World War II, would be disbanded.
Overall, the base would lose a total of 425 military active-duty and civilian positions.
A breakdown of how many military jobs vs. how many civilian jobs would disappear isn’t available because of ongoing evaluations of where cuts should be made, base officials say.
Luke now has 5,008 active-duty and 935 civilian positions.
In terms of aircraft, downsizing would leave Luke with 160 F-16 fighters, down from the 185 it has now.
Even with the reduced number of planes, it would be able to train as many F-16 pilots as the military requires, base officials say.
However, fewer planes would mean fewer flights out of Luke.
The latest downsizing plan was required by decisions the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission, known as BRAC, made in 2005. The panel ordered a number of military bases in the U.S. closed and others significantly cut back, but the reductions it ordered at Luke were seen as minimal.
BRAC recommendations have already led to some downsizing at Luke.
It took three years to come up with this particular plan, Jones said, because such adjustments are complex and must be done with an eye toward allowing bases to continue carrying out important missions.
“This action should not be misinterpreted as a sign of things to come or Luke Air Force Base drawing down,” Jones said. “We are simply providing a recommendation to Air Force headquarters to deactivate a fighter squadron as was directed by the BRAC commission in 2005. We will continue to be the largest fighter training wing in the Air Force and train the world’s greatest F-16 fighter pilots and maintainers while deploying mission ready war fighters.”
The 25 F-16s that would be retired are among the oldest operated by the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke and are not used by combat units, Jones said.
Those F-16s would leave Luke a few at a time starting in November and be all gone by early August 2009.
They would be transferred to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and leave active service.
Also, Luke’s operation that repairs targeting pods - devices that enhance pilots’ view of terrain and targets - would be moved to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to be combined with a similar facility.
Deactivation of the 63rd Fighter Squadron, which was formed in 1941 as the 63rd Pursuit Squadron, would mark the end of a unit that distinguished itself in World War II.
Flying escort ahead of U.S. bomber fleets, it destroyed more than 165 enemy aircraft in the air and 110 on the ground.
Offsetting to some degree the loss of personnel at Luke, the base over the next two years will become the host of Navy and Marine Reserve units in Phoenix and the 107th Air Control Squadron, now at the Papago Park Military Reservation.
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