The Dutch Daily News is reporting this morning that the Royal Netherlands Air Force will return to Tucson International Airport for pilot training with the 162nd Fighter Wing. For the past five years the Dutch have been training with the Ohio National Guard's 178th FW at Springfield-Beckley ANGB. The OHANG has been in long term negotiations with the RNLAF, but the Dutch have decided to return to Tucson instead. They will base 14 of their F-16 aircraft there at Tucson beginning in January 2011 just as they have at Springfield since 2005.
This is bad news for milcom monitors here in southwest Ohio who are used to hearing daily action in the local Military Operations Areas that are nearby. The 178th FW has been slated to disband in accordance to the 2005 BRAC. Area officials have been trying to negotiate a new contact to keep the Dutch at Springfield into the future,. a future which is now up in the air...so to speak.
