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Fighter role of ‘Tacos’ nears end

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. — A 61-year-old Air National Guard unit that had hoped to replace its aging jets with F-22 Raptors will fly its last mission in 14 months, New Mexico National Guard Maj. Gen. Kenny Montoya said.

A Pentagon decision earlier this month to limit the number of F-22s the federal government buys means the Air National Guard’s 150th Fighter Wing — known as New Mexico’s “Tacos” — will not be able to use those fighter jets to replace its 23 aging F-16C Fighting Falcons.

“We’re out of the F-22 business,” Montoya told the Albuquerque Journal in a story published Saturday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said the Pentagon will buy only 187 of the $150 million F-22s. Forty F-22s will go to two Air Force fighter squadrons at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo.

Instead, the Pentagon will purchase F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighters, but these $104 million aircraft will not be available for National Guard units until at least 2017, Montoya said. And for smaller units like the Tacos, they probably aren’t likely to get F-35s until 2020, if ever.

Even with cutting back on flying hours and doing more maintenance, the Tacos’ F-16s will be airworthy for only another three to five years, meaning the 150th would be without fighter jets for at least six years before F-35s would be available.

Montoya said he has worked with two Air Force chiefs of staff and the National Guard Bureau to identify new flying missions for the unit’s 1,092 personnel, a third of whom are full-time Guard personnel.

Ideas for the unit include: —Training the Iraqi Air Force to fly the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6, a single-engine turboprop aircraft designed for light attack and counterinsurgency missions.

* Participating in an Air Force program to develop a new combat, search and rescue helicopter.

* Attaching the 150th to the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis, which doesn’t fly fighter jets.

The uncertainty of their mission is hard for the unit’s pilots, Montoya said.

“It’s killing them,” he said. “It’s in their hearts to be fighters and warriors.”

The unit is slated to deploy to Iraq for three months this summer.