Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) has successfully inserted an amendment in next year’s defense policy bill that could help prevent the closing of what military leaders say is a vital airlift wing for national security.
Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced on Tuesday that they were releasing a final version of the National Defense Authorization Act after a conference committee process. Included in the main policy bill for the Department of Defense is an amendment from Tillis that seeks to preserve the 440th Airlift Wing, an Air Force reserve unit that helps train the nation’s largest contingent of airborne and special operations forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Air Force officials admitted earlier this year that they did not consult leaders at Fort Bragg before deciding to shutter the 440th, which they said would help reduce costs. Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the outgoing commander at Fort Bragg, has publicly expressed his opposition to the Air Force’s plans to deactivate the airlift wing that serves the 18th Airborne Corps, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
Tillis’ amendment requires the commanders of those three forces, as well as the chiefs of staff and secretaries of the Army and Air Force, respectively, to certify that national security will not be harmed if C-130H planes are removed from the 440th at Fort Bragg. If they do say that it would undermine security and the readiness of the military’s global response forces, then the planes cannot be transferred.
"Fort Bragg is the home of the global response force," Tillis said in an interview. "There’s literally no other military installation in the world that has the responsibility of going somewhere in 24 hours," whether for disaster relief or military operations.
"There’s no other base expected to do that, and no other base equipped to do that," he added.
The Air Force, which pushed back the deactivation of the 440th until fall 2016 after pressure from Tillis and other lawmakers, has said that it can still train the airborne units at Fort Bragg by flying in planes from other bases in Georgia and Kentucky.
"Divesting the 440th Air Wing will not impact 18th Airborne Corps Global Response Force Joint Forcible Entry capacity and capability," Maj. Lindsey Wilkinson, a spokeswoman for the Air Force, told the Fayetteville Observer.
However, Tillis and other lawmakers say that flying in planes from other bases that do not host as many airborne units is also inefficient. Additionally, they say that it could harm the readiness of those forces.
"In the last few months we have engaged all levels of leadership in the XVIII Airborne Corps from commanding generals to first sergeants," wrote Tillis and Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) in a letter to Gen. Mark Milley, Army chief of staff.
"To a man, we have received the same message—the Corps’ airborne qualifications are degraded, units are not getting the support they require. As you are aware, Air Mobility Command’s own plan shows they cannot meet Fort Bragg’s daily training requirements if the indigenous Air Force lift presence disappears."
Tillis also criticized President Obama’s threat to veto either the defense policy bill or the actual spending bill for defense appropriations, which could threaten not only the senator’s amendment on the 440th but also basic items such as pay for troops. Obama says that House and Senate Republicans should do more to lift caps on both domestic and defense spending before passing the appropriations bills.
"If he vetoes this, he’s making this statement that his domestic agenda is more important than global, national, and homeland security," Tillis said. "If he does, that is a failure of the president."