USA — Air Force Announces MC12W and C‑27J Basing Proposal

MC12W

The Depart­ment of the Air Force announced today Beale Air Force Base, Calif., as the pre­ferred alter­na­tive bas­ing option for the MC-12W.

Sec­re­tary of the Air Force Michael Don­ley pre­vi­ous­ly approved six can­di­date bases. They includ­ed Altus Air Force Base, Okla.; Beale Air Force Base, Calif.; Key Field Air Nation­al Guard Base, Miss.; Lan­g­ley Air Force Base, Va.; Robins Air Force Base, Ga.; and White­man Air Force Base, Mo. 

Site sur­vey teams eval­u­at­ed all can­di­date bases for fea­si­bil­i­ty, tim­ing, cost and plan­ning pur­pos­es to meet ini­tial oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ty. As a result of these sur­veys, the range of rea­son­able alter­na­tives was reduced to three bases: Beale, Robins, and Whiteman. 

“Beale Air Force Base is the pre­ferred alter­na­tive for bas­ing the MC-12W air­craft giv­en its access to train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, syn­er­gy with exist­ing intel­li­gence sur­veil­lance and recon­nais­sance fly­ing mis­sions, and col­lo­ca­tion with the dis­trib­uted ground sta­tion mis­sion” said Kath­leen Fer­gu­son, deputy assis­tant sec­re­tary for installations.

A pre­ferred alter­na­tive is an alter­na­tive which the Air Force believes best ful­fills its mis­sion and respon­si­bil­i­ties, tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion envi­ron­men­tal, oper­a­tional, tech­ni­cal and oth­er factors. 

This is not a final bas­ing deci­sion. The pre­ferred alter­na­tive with oth­er rea­son­able alter­na­tives will con­tin­ue to be eval­u­at­ed in the envi­ron­men­tal impact analy­sis process. 

The MC-12W is a medi­um- to low-alti­tude, twin-engine tur­bo­prop air­craft. Its pri­ma­ry mis­sion is pro­vid­ing intel­li­gence, sur­veil­lance and recon­nais­sance sup­port direct­ly to ground forces. 

The MC-12W capa­bil­i­ty sup­ports all aspects of the world-wide Air Force irreg­u­lar war­fare mis­sion includ­ing counter insur­gency, for­eign inter­nal defense, and build­ing part­ner­ship capacity. 

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact the Sec­re­tary of the Air Force Pub­lic Affairs Office at 703–695-0640.

C‑27J

The Depart­ment of the Air Force announced today its can­di­date bas­ing deci­sion for the C‑27J oper­a­tions and train­ing aircraft. 

The sec­re­tary and chief of staff of the Air Force approved C‑27J oper­a­tions and train­ing can­di­date bases. Train­ing can­di­dates are: Key Field Air Guard Sta­tion, Miss; Mans­field Lahm Region­al Air­port, Ohio. Oper­a­tions can­di­dates are: Boise Air Ter­mi­nal Air Guard Sta­tion, Ida­ho; and Great Falls Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, Mont. The Air Force will con­duct site sur­veys at the can­di­date loca­tions and ini­ti­ate the envi­ron­men­tal impact analy­sis process in prepa­ra­tion for a final selection. 

The C‑27J is a twin tur­bo­prop engine air­craft designed to meet an Air Force require­ment for a rugged, medi­um size air­land trans­port. The C‑27J gives U.S. mil­i­tary troops a unique, short-take-off-and-land­ing capa­bil­i­ty, pro­vid­ing access to airstrips oth­er­wise unus­able by fixed-wing aircraft. 

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact the Sec­re­tary of the Air Force Pub­lic Affairs Office at 703–695-0640.

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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