F-35B decision pending for Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

The F-35B Joint Strike Fighter process is on schedule for the Navy and Marine Corps and a decision about where to base the combat and training squadrons remains on track for December according to a press release.

Recently, the Air Force announced its preferred alternatives to base the first batch of F-35As at facilities outside South Carolina. That announcement, though, is unrelated to the Department of the Navy’s process for assigning 11 operational and two training squadrons of F-35Bs at East Coast bases.

The Navy’s preferred alternative is to base three operational F-35B squadrons at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and house two F-35B training squadrons and simulator centers here too.

“What the Air Force does and how they do it is totally unrelated to what the Navy and Marine Corps do,” said Maj. Gen. George Patrick III, executive coordinator for the South Carolina Military Base Task Force.

“The Environmental Impact Statement process is similar because it’s all under federal guidelines. But the Navy/Marine Corps decision is totally independent of the Air Force process,” said Patrick, a retired Air Force major general.

Bringing five squadrons of F35-B Joint Strike Fighters to Beaufort County will $300+ million in new base construction and potentially bring 200 high-paying civilian jobs to the area to help with the training centers, said Carlotta Ungaro, president of the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Navy and Defense Department officials are reviewing public input and their own research from the draft Environmental Impact Statement. At this point, the Navy plans to divide the F-35B squadrons between Beaufort and Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, NC. The “B” model is capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings.

Congress and Defense Department leaders continue to talk about scaling back the purchase plan for the Joint Strike Fighter. Given that likelihood, the Navy’s preferred basing solution – Alternate 1 – brings great advantages for Beaufort County, said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Garry Parks, chairman of the Beaufort County Military Enhancement Committee.

In that scenario, Beaufort would receive the first batch of Joint Strike Fighters, probably within 48 months, with new Air Station construction contracts going out in early 2011. If the Navy were to instead go with what’s called Alternative 3, sending eight operational squadrons to Beaufort but no training centers, those squadrons likely would arrive no sooner than 2020.

That delay, Parks said, could be devastating should military budgets be cut, F-35B purchases be curtailed, or the Beaufort Air Station be considered unnecessary. Nearly every day, a news story comes out about cuts to the Defense budget, making the F-35 planes on the back end of the timeline more vulnerable.

On June 22, an estimated 750 area residents shared their support and their questions about the Joint Strike Fighter at the Beaufort Holiday Inn. It was the largest turnout for any Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) meeting in the country, defense officials said.

In addition to the Beaufort Air Station’s exceptional training areas offshore and the Townsend Bombing Range in Georgia, the region has a highly qualified workforce made up of former military personnel, said Kim Statler, executive director of the Lowcountry Economic Network & Alliance. With the Boeing project in Charleston and Gulfstream in Savannah, the Lowcountry is well positioned for aeronautics business, she said.

The arrival of the F35-B Joint Strike Fighter will help with attracting new industry to our region while bolstering existing businesses that focus on technology, aeronautics and defense, Statler said. The jets are expected to arrive in 2014, replacing the F/A-18 Hornets.

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