Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix is being considered for a downgrade.
U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Arizona, heard that confirmed when he asked General David W. Allvin, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, about the base during a hearing this week.
“While I support and appreciate the need to reduce the bloat in our military at the top, we cannot ignore the importance of Luke Air Force Base – not only to those of us who call CD8 home, but to our nation’s national security,” Hamadeh told The Center Square.
Hamadeh went on to state he has “the utmost confidence” in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to make the appropriate evaluation and act accordingly.
“That being said, I have full confidence the final evaluation will recognize that the men and women who serve Luke Air Force Base deserve nothing but the very best from us,” said Hamadeh, a former U.S. Army Reserve captain and intelligence officer, during Thursday’s interview.
Located in Glendale, Luke Air Force Base is named after 2nd Lt Frank Luke Jr., the first aviator awarded the Medal of Honor. Luke shot down more than a dozen airplanes and balloons during World War I. In the mid-1940s, pilots of Luke Air Force Base’s 56th Fighter Wing destroyed more enemy planes than any other Army Air Force group in the 8th Air Force.
During the exchange with Allvin, who did undergraduate pilot training at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona, Hamadeh noted Luke Air Force Base is still important today, as it trains 75% of the world’s F-35 pilots.
“I know image and stature matter with our foreign partners quite substantially, and it’s important to keep a unified command behind a one-star general at Luke Air Force Base,” Hamadeh said during Wednesday’s hearing.
AI – artificial intelligence / or alternate intelligence ; when the opinion and the goal are dissimilar but achievable by deceptive reality – that is “Artificial Intelligence” when that can’t be stopped by the ‘Off Switch’ THAT is the DEMON IN CONTROL – which is just over the horizion
‘Downgrade’ is a political term for ‘It’s on the clock and is going to close’.
Davis-Monthan AFB is a base without a real mission, other than housing the boneyard. Several years back some of my DOE sources said the US Space Force was looking at establishing their own national lab, a la DOE Labs, and DoD service branch labs. At the time I made that information available to certain Tucson big-shots, who clueless to its signifiance, simply pooh-pooh’d it. Then it got confirmed at the DoD, but by then UA & Tucson had fallen so low in national R&D estimation, there’s no way they’d pick the place (DMAFB) with UA as a site M&O manager. Davis-Monthan needs to be repurposed badly.
Sellers – DMAFB – beyond the bone yard – is the home of the PJ group – they are coming with substantial rotor wing, as well as a new wing of – support craft ; winged guns to support the rescue efforts – this also means they have their own transport and air refuel components to be anywhere they are needed FAST ; I live by the DM – work by DM – the numbers of flights I believe training F-16 pilots here just a few months back were substantial – there are also numbers of remote operated jets being operated from DM ; with all their support systems. Just because they didn’t show up with a parade does not mean ‘nothing is going on’…
The title implies the report is about the downgrade, what is being downgraded, what is the scope and scale of the plan, how many people are impacted directly, how are they impacted, what does it involve from a variety of perspectives, what is the significance and what are we to expect next. But all that’s reported about the downgrade is the word, “downgrade.”
Apparently our AI “reporter” stops investigating when she has composed a good headline.
Davis-Monthan AFB too?
I don’t see it closed – the GILA bombing range, was well as lots of available ‘supersonic’ flight area – for ‘fighter combat training’ at low level flight ; with lots of great fly weather. I don’t see it. Very few if any – similar quality flight areas available that present what Arizona has for ‘flight / fighter training