Springfield ANGB was hoping to land a contract training pilots of the Singapore Air Force. Instead those jobs will be going to the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard based at Tucson. The reason for this, is that it costs between $900,000 and $1.2 million less to train per pilot.Springfield has been hosting the Royal Netherlands Air Force since 2007 and that contract expires this fall, it is currently being negotiated to extend the RNLAF training. When that 10 year Base Realignment And Closure mission as a training base ends, 150 full time jobs and the base itself are at risk of being lost. Everyone from local politicians to the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff are committing themselves to keep the base open and operational. One of the cost factors involved with Singapore not coming to Springfield is that they would have to lease the jets to fly. The 178th FW is slated to lose all of it's F-16 aircraft in accordance to the BRAC directives.
In the meantime daily training sorties continue to provide local milair enthusiasts some interesting monitoring.
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