Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) said on Wednesday that the Air Force has failed to allay concerns about the deactivation of the 440th Airlift Wing, a vital support unit for training U.S. special operations and airborne forces.
The Air Force has signaled in recent months that it plans to phase out the 440th, which has shed about 200 airmen and reduced its flights in response to budget cuts. The Airlift Wing, an Air Force Reserve unit, flies the only C-130 planes that are permanently stationed at the Pope Airfield at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Critics of the Air Force’s move say it does not make strategic or financial sense to remove airmen from the base that serves some of the Army’s top airborne units, including the 82nd Airborne Division and special operations forces.
After meeting with Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, Tillis said in a statement that "questions I have been asking for months regarding the Air Force’s short-sighted plans to deactivate the 440th Air Wing remain unanswered."
"The Air Force continues to state that removing airmen from the 440th does not constitute an attempt to shutter the air wing, despite the fact that C-130s cannot be flown without pilots and maintainers," he said.
"I will continue to require Air Force leaders to be more transparent with the public and Congress regarding their decision-making, and hold them accountable for decisions that lack a strategic justification or violate the spirit of last year’s [National Defense Authorization Act], which mandates that Congress be informed before the Air Force acts to close the 440th," he added.
Last year’s defense bill required the Air Force to submit a report to Congress on its plans for the fielding of C-130 aircraft before taking any action. The 440th was originally slated to receive new C-130J planes to replace its older C-130Hs, but Air Force officials shelved that program and opted to deactivate the airlift wing.
The Air Force has said it is permitted to move airmen, though not planes, before issuing the report to Congress. That position previously elicited sharp criticism from Tillis.
"That does not pass the laugh test unless the Air Force Reserve Command expects the Pope C-130s to be converted to drones—no pilots, no air wing," he said.
The Air Force Reserve Command declined to comment on the concerns raised by Tillis following his meeting with James.
Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps, said last month that the 440th "should not go." Air Force officials have admitted that they did not consult Army leaders at Fort Bragg before proceeding with the dismantlement of the 440th, though they said the Army did not previously protest the decision.
The 440th has about 1,200 airmen. Air Force Reserve officials have opened a clearinghouse to begin moving reservists from the unit.
Anderson noted that it would be more difficult to train airborne and special operations units stationed at Fort Bragg without permanent planes there to assist them.
"Of all places in the world, why would we take that capability away from Fort Bragg?" he said.