Streamlining Cuts 6 Refueling Tankers From Fairchild

Fairchild Air Force Base would lose six aerial tankers and 145 jobs as part of a new round of cutbacks.

The reductions, announced late Friday with few details, are among cuts the Air Force wants to make at military bases in 43 states.

The Fairchild cuts surprised people who lobbied successfully this spring to keep the West Plains base off a list of bases to be closed or realigned.

The changes are unrelated to the base closure decisions recently endorsed by President Clinton.

Rep. George Nethercutt had not been informed of the proposed cuts, a spokeswoman in his Spokane office said.

Nethercutt’s office in Washington, D.C., received some information on the reductions late in the day, press aide Ken Lisaius said.

The changes appear to be part of a “bottom-up military review” to streamline the Air Force and could take place over the next two years, Lisaius said.

Fairchild is the nation’s largest base for KC-135 tankers, with a fleet of about 60 of the flying gas stations assigned to the 92nd Air Refueling Wing. The base has five tanker squadrons, and each squadron usually operates 12 planes.

It was not clear how the changes would affect that structure and Fairchild officials could not be reached for comment. Most offices at the base were closed Friday as a reward for passing a recent inspection.

McChord Air Force Base, near Tacoma, would lose 81 military jobs under the plan.

The Air Force also announced that it canceled its previously announced decision to move three E-3B AWACS radar control planes to Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. It did not say how many jobs were associated with that move, which it said was canceled because the AWACS planes are needed elsewhere.

The cuts would hit New Mexico the hardest. The Air Force said it was shutting down Cannon Air Force Base’s 428th Fighter Squadron, which conducts training for F-111 fighter-bombers. That would cut 974 military and 26 civilian jobs.

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in Spokane edition