F-16 Fighting Falcon News

May 20, 2009 (by Asif Shamim) - Hill AFB could loose one-third of its F-16s after the air force announced it plans to remove 250 aircraft from its fleet in a accelerated retirement program according to the Standard Examiner.
Hill is regarded as the home for worldwide engineering, logistics management and depot maintenance for the F-16 Fighting Falcon. The base itself house 72 F-16s with the 388th Fighter Wing. Under the new proposal it would see that number cut to 48.

Bernadette Dozier, 388th Fighter Wing spokeswoman, said it's too early to speculate how the cuts would affect the base.

"We just received the info fairly recently," Dozier said. "We don't have any details on implementation yet, so we will stand by for guidance and continue to focus on our mission as we have been."

By restructuring the Air Force will net the Department of Defense a cost savings of $355 million in Fiscal Year 2010 and $3.5 billion over the next five fiscal years, which would be invested mostly in advanced capability modifications to remaining fighters and bombers according to officials.

Hill is also regarded as a candidate for the future placement of the F-35, which will eventually replace the F-16.

Ogden Air Logistics Centre also based at Hill, is also a prime candidate to perform the maintenance workload for the Predator and the Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles. A decision on the location of workload centres will be made later this year.