House panel adopts measure seeking Pentagon plan for replacing Selfridge fighter jets

Washington ― A key House panel on Wednesday adopted a measure that would temporarily freeze planned retirements of aging aircraft at Air National Guard bases around the country, including the A-10 squadron at Macomb County's Selfridge base.

The House Armed Services Committee adopted the legislation by voice vote as an amendment by Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The full House will consider the broader legislation later this year.

Bacon's amendment is based on his legislation with Michigan Reps. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing, and John James, R-Farmington Hills, and others that would pause retirements until after the U.S. Air Force produces a 10-year plan for replacing legacy airframes like the A-10, one for one, with next-generation aircraft at the 25 Air National Guard bases around the country.

Bacon warned Wednesday that cutting National Guard squadrons would mean losing the military's most experienced pilots and maintainers in the Air Force. He said the Air Force's fighter fleet has been reduced 60% since 1987 and is on track to shrink another 397 aircraft by the end of fiscal year 2029.

"This is not about individual airframes, units or states. It's about preserving America's tactical air power, it's talking about the National Guard," Bacon told his colleagues. "We're going to shut down or remove two and a half aircraft for every new aircraft we put in the force. This decline, combined with chronic under resourcing within the Air Force, is getting critically too low for us to defend against China, Russia and in the Middle East."

Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, previously served as a wing commander at Ramstein Air Base and Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. 

The measure faced opposition from the panel's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, among others who said the amendment would slow the Pentagon's effort's to modernize.

Smith said he opposes restricting the ability of the military to discontinue programs in an effort to modernize, lamenting how members of Congress tend to block those efforts to protect local interests. He ticked off a list of platforms as examples.

"We had this fight over the A-10. For years, we've had the fight over some cruisers that were past their useful life. We've had the fight over the B1, the F-22," Smith said.

"Every time the Air Force or DOD goes to discontinue an existing program, it impacts somebody, and they don't want to see it happen and those little pieces add up to a lot of money that then makes it difficult to have the money to modernize."

The debate comes amid a bipartisan effort by Michigan's congressional delegation and state leaders to secure another fighter mission to eventually replace Selfridge's A-10s, which are expected to be retired in the next decade, if not sooner.

The A-10 mission is the backbone of the Harrison Township base, which marks its 106th anniversary this year and supports an estimated 5,000 jobs in the community, according to state figures.

The push to retire A-10s is part of an Air Force effort to reduce the top line number of fighter aircraft across the service, with leaders this year proposing to divest, for example, an additional 42 A-10s in its fiscal 2024 budget.

Last year, lawmakers let the Pentagon to divest 21 A-10s based in Indiana while blocking divestment of the oldest and least capable F-22s.

mburke@detroitnews.com