The year 2028 looms large for the Colorado Air National Guard at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora.
The guard’s F-16s — fighter jets referred to as Fighting Falcons — are getting old, with most expected to start running out of useful life in about five years. Many of them were built in the late 1980s, and while updates potentially could extend their use for another three to four years, the planes’ retirement is on the horizon.
Local and federal elected leaders worry the planes’ twilight years could bring the eventual end of the flying mission for the Air National Guard’s 140th Wing — and, potentially, the closure of its active runway at Buckley. Three of Colorado’s members of Congress joined with Aurora city officials and local defense leaders recently in calling for the Pentagon to budget money to replace the aging fighter jets with new planes.
U.S. Rep. Jason Crow and Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper warned that not doing so not only would imperil the 140th Wing’s future but also would affect the nation’s defense as well as emergency response capabilities in the state.
Federal lawmakers from several states have introduced bills to prevent the closure of Air National Guard fighter squadrons as the U.S. Air Force divests from aging aircraft without replacement plans. They also want to compel Air Force officials to explain how cutting fighter wings would be consistent with the priorities of the national defense strategy.
Crow, whose district includes Aurora, is among the bill sponsors. He said in an interview that the national defense strategy’s No.1 priority is homeland defense, something that aligns with the primary mission of the 140th Wing at Buckley.
The unit also is charged with being “responsible for the protection of the airspace over the western United States, including some of our most key national security assets in Colorado Springs, NORTHCOM and NORAD and others,” Crow said, referring to the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. “So it’s essential that we have aircraft available.”
Buckley Space Force Base, spanning 3,328 acres, previously was an Air Force base before it transitioned to being under the command of the newer U.S. Space Force in 2021, giving it an evolving mission in recent years. It is host to Space Base Delta 2 and missions under the Air Force and the Space Force tasked with space surveillance, space communications, space-based missile warnings and other operations.
Airmen and space professionals are also deployed from the base for combat, and it hosts multiple active duty and reserve units or support services for the military branches, including the Colorado guard’s 140th Wing.
During a news conference in September, Crow, Hickenlooper and Bennet stressed the base’s growing importance.
“The threat that Russia now poses, (and) that China’s going to pose over the next 30 years, means that we have to have the strongest, most integrated fighting force we can have,” Bennet said. “And the Air National Guard’s got to be a big part of that.
“We need to make the case about why this location, at this altitude (and) this close to these mountains — where these guys can fly missions that nobody can fly anywhere else, really, in the entire country — why this needs to remain a keystone in terms of the national defense footprint.”
The Colorado Air National Guard, part of the state’s National Guard, is also a reserve component of the U.S. Air Force. It has about 1,100 reserve members tied to the flying mission at Buckley. The wing is also helping train five pilots and 30 maintainers on active duty.
Many of the reserve members of the 140th Wing are highly experienced pilots who provide training to other military personnel.
The guard has 18 primary authorized F-16s, and the Air Force provides a few others to cycle through for maintenance. If they’re not replaced, the loss of those planes not only would affect the flying mission of the guard unit at Buckley but also the aircraft’s availability to the Air Force, said Colorado Air National Guard Commander Micah Fesler.
“It will impact the other combatant commanders that are out there,” he said. “So those airplanes wouldn’t be available … to go to the Middle East or to go to the Pacific or to go to Eastern Europe right now. So not replacing those airplanes leaves a gap in our national defense capability.”
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a military veteran, has been a vocal supporter of upgrading the fighter jet fleet. He worries about the potential of the remaining active runway closing entirely.
“It just tears the guts out of the Colorado Air National Guard” he said, “because really, at the heart of the Colorado National Guard is the F-16s.”
Gov. Jared Polis has supported the F-16 fleet replacements in comments to senior White House officials and the Pentagon, spokesperson Conor Cahill said. Cahill called the Buckley base “an integral part of the community and local economy as well as our national security architecture” in a statement.
Fesler said the 140th Wing has some of the most experienced fighter pilots in the Air Force, at a fraction of the cost to the government because many of them have full-time jobs working for commercial airlines. The airlines benefit by having pilots who are trained and have security clearances in exchange for allowing them to get deployed or participate in training as needed.
The Colorado Air National Guard’s mission goes beyond national defense. It was deployed at the height of the pandemic, for example, to run testing sites, assist in the state’s emergency operations center, and help manage five hotels where people who were homeless and COVID-positive were staying.
More recently, 10 airmen recovered human remains from a Penrose funeral home accused of improperly storing bodies.
The price tag for aircraft modernization is steep, since the new aircraft would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, whether the F-16s are replaced with F-35s or F-15EXs.
But Fesler suggested the alternative of not replacing the fighter jets would be more costly. The military would be forced to spend millions of dollars to maintain and operate the runway and bring in personnel from other units, along with aircraft from other parts of the country, for defense needs.
“The reality is no matter what they do, it’s going to increase overall expenses,” Fesler said.
In 2022, analysts estimated Buckley Space Force Base contributed about $1.38 billion to the economy, creating nearly 5,500 jobs.
“When you’re talking about the people that are there, you’ve got mechanics, you’ve got pilots, there’s guys that fly for United Airlines and Frontier that are also flying fighter planes,” said Dick Hinson, senior vice president of the Aurora Economic Development Council and a member of the Aurora Defense Council. The defense council is an arm of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce that supports military missions. “And so you’re giving up a lot (if the runway closes). … It would be a huge loss.”
The Colorado Air National Guard is not the only unit in the country facing a similar challenge, Fesler said. More than a dozen at least expect a need for “recapitalization,” or upgrades, for their aircraft within the next eight to 10 years.
The U.S. defense budget is roughly $800 billion per year, but Fesler said getting approval for new aircraft is still a challenge because a lot of critical military equipment funding was delayed as money went into the wars in the Middle East. He commended local, state and federal leaders for pushing for action.
Part of the problem, said Crow, a former Army Ranger, is that the Air Force is going through a “Divest to Invest” strategy in an effort to save billions of dollars.
“But the national security threats that we face right now require us to have those airplanes and those fighter wings to meet urgent current threats,” the congressman said.
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