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Singapore pilots not coming to local base

Potential new mission would have helped solidify hundreds of jobs

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By Samantha Sommer, Staff Writer Updated 8:37 PM Tuesday, January 5, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — Singapore won’t train its fighter pilots at the Springfield Air National Guard Base.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced in September that Singapore was considering training here.

Rather it will send its students to Tucson, Ariz., to learn to fly F-16s, the Ohio Adjutant General’s Office learned Monday, Jan. 4.

Base personnel were told of the decision Tuesday.

The training costs between $900,000 and $1.2 million less per student in Tucson, said Mark Wayda, vice chief of staff of the Ohio National Guard.

“It really is purely economics,” he said.

The base faces a transition.

It has trained Dutch pilots since 2007. That contract expires this fall and negotiations continue on renewing it.

The U.S. pilot training mission will wrap up this fall after 10 years as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process. That mission has 150 full-time jobs tied to it. Without the Singapore mission, those positions are at risk, officials said.

The Air Force chief of staff is committed to finding the base a new mission, Wayda said.

“There has been a full effort by everybody to ensure that this base remains open, that the personnel there have the full-time positions,” he said.

A number of missions have been discussed and Wayda declined to specify what they could entail, although it may not involve flying.

“All of that is still up in the air,” he said.

The higher cost to train pilots in Springfield is largely due to two factors.

Several countries send students to Tucson and a U.S. mission is there as well. So the fixed costs — such as firefighters and runway operations — are shared by many users.

Singapore also would have had to lease jets in Springfield as the base is losing its F-16s.

U.S. Rep. Steve Austria said he was disappointed and would like to see a seamless transition to a new mission in Springfield, which he called a superior facility. About $65 million has been spent on upgrades there.

“The people who work there are very professional, talented, hard-working people who are dedicated, not just to the National Guard and the Air Force, but to our community,” said Austria, R-Beavercreek.

The base has about 450 full-time employees and 950 part-time guardsmen. It has transformed before, including from a fighting unit to training.

That track record should go a long way to securing a new mission, Base Commander Col. Mike Roberts said.

“They’ve proven to be very adaptable and done an outstanding job at whatever mission the Guard and the Air Force have handed to us,” he said.

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