Officials at Luke prep for arrival of F-35 squadrons By Paul Giblin The Republic | azcentral With the arrival of the first wave of F-35 Lightning IIs at Luke Air Force Base just months away, construction is underway on facilities where pilots will be trained and the planes will be maintained. In all, Air Force executives have projected a $265million, seven-year construction program specifically to accommodate the F-35 pilot-training program at the base in west Glendale. The build-up will allow Luke to serve as the permanent training base for 144 of the single-engine stealth jets that military analysts say will be crucial to U.S. air-defense operations for the next 40 years. The construction is scheduled to be completed in six major phases to coincide with the arrival of six squadrons of F-35s and the departure of six squadrons of older F-16s that are relocating elsewhere. “It’s going to be sort of a Jenga puzzle game for a while,” said Lt. Col. Scott Fredrick, who is heading Luke’s F-35 transition team. The first F-35 assigned to Luke is expected to arrive between January and March. Luke’s first jet also is expected to be the 100th production F-35 manufactured by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., in Fort Worth, Texas, ticking off two important milestones for the F-35 program simultaneously, Fredrick said. The rest of the planes in Luke’s first 24-plane squadron are expected to be delivered in groups of one to four throughout 2014, said Lockheed Martin spokesman Michael Rein. The high-dollar construction program associated with the jets at Luke will boost the entire Valley’s economy, said Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers. “It’s certainly a benefit. I do believe it’s the whole region. I think it’s going to be literally across the Valley,” he said. Construction crews already are bustling to transition the base for the newest generation of fighter planes. Luke has 137 F-16s. The first two squadrons of F-16s are scheduled to relocate to Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, N.M., in 2014 and 2015. However, F-35 instructors, trainees and crews cannot simply move into existing facilities as the F-16s and their personnel move out, Fredrick said. The F-35s feature more advanced technology and different equipment than the F-16s, which requires support facilities tailored specifically to accommodate them. Some buildings and infrastructure systems are being retrofitted for the F-35s, but most of the work involves new construction. The first phase features three major buildings — a classroom building called the Academic Training Center, a squadron headquarters called the Squadron Operations building and a workshop building called the Aircraft Maintenance Unit. Work is under way on all three buildings. The classroom building eventually will be used by all six squadrons of pilots-in-training, but each of the six squadrons will get their own operations and maintenance buildings.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 13:41:52 +0000
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