Idaho delegation continues push for strike fighter

Idaho lawmakers and local officials are moving ahead with efforts to get the Pentagon to house the military's next-generation tactical fighter jet at Mountain Home Air Force Base, a competition that pits the installation near the Snake River against others that covet the expensive planes.

Brad Hoaglun, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Friday the senator has met with military officials this spring to underscore interest in the Joint Strike Fighter, known as the F-35.

Arizona's Luke Air Force Base, which in recent weeks has announced it's slashing nearly 549 military positions and eliminating 28 F-16 fighter jets, is among other bases vying for the planes.

It will still be two years before the military makes a decision in this high-stakes battle: Rival military communities are banking on new planes and crews necessary to maintain them as a means of bolstering their economies.

Five weeks ago, the city of Mountain Home, about 50 miles east of Boise, sent three representatives to Washington, D.C., to personally lobby the Pentagon. Mayor Tom Rist said the contingent told military officials the location of bombing ranges in the remote desert mountains nearby made an ideal location for the F-35s, because they could save on long fuel-guzzling flights for training and weren't likely to bother more-populated areas with noise pollution.

"From a military standpoint, Mountain Home is a perfect location for the F-35s," Rist told The Associated Press Friday. "We feel we're in the mix. But it's a crapshoot right now."

The $245 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, which foresees the Pentagon eventually buying up to 2,450 of the planes, is among the most expensive weapons program in U.S. history.

On Thursday, the Department of Defense announced it had awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. a $441.9 million addition to its contract for seven more F-35s for the Air Force, seven for the Marine Corps, two for the United Kingdom and one for Netherlands.

Other Air Force bases mentioned as possible sites for the planes are Eielson in Alaska; Shaw in South Carolina; Moody in Georgia; Hill in Utah; and Tyndall and Eglin in Florida.

Earlier this year, Idaho's congressional delegation sent a letter to Gen. Norton Schwartz, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, urging him to pick Idaho. Mountain Home's average of 337 flying days annually makes it a great location for pilots to practice maneuvers, they wrote.

"As you know, the Mountain Home Range Complex is one of the top training areas in the Air Force," Idaho lawmakers Risch, U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo and U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, all Republicans, told Schwartz, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the AP. "The complex is located within two minutes of takeoff and it has two ranges, Sailor Creek and Juniper Butte ranges, as well as several no-drop and electronic targets scattered under the Military Operation Area."

Mountain Home has already won a deal with the Republic of Singapore as a training base for its new F-15SG fighter jets, a package that includes 180 active and 130 support personnel from the Asian nation.

A Mountain Home Air Force Base spokesman didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

Competition for planes like the F-35 is fierce.

Like Mountain Home, Arizona's Luke also boasts easy access to a training area, the 1.9-million-acre Barry Goldwater Range in the Sonoran Desert, as well as stable four-season weather. One concern in Arizona has been pollution from the F-35; Maricopa County is a non-attainment area for failing to meet federal air-quality standards and the F-35 emissions are dirtier than those of F-16s housed at Luke now.

But local Arizona officials who want the F-35 just as badly as their Mountain Home counterparts have downplayed the issue, contending such concerns aren't a problem.