5 Things You Should Know About The F-35 Basing

[unhappycamper]

http://digital.vpr.net/post/5-things-you-should-know-about-f-35-basing



5 Things You Should Know About The F-35 Basing
By Taylor Dobbs
VPR News Blog

Now that it's decided that F-35s are coming to Vermont, here is what you need to know about the jets, the basing and the heated local debate over the Air Force's choice.

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2. The F-35s won’t be flying as frequently as the F16s do

According to an Air Force analysis, the Vermont Air National Guard will perform 5,486 “airfield operations” per year under the chosen basing plan. That is almost a one-third reduction from the current 8,099 annual operations by the guard using F-16s. For scale, Burlington International Airport sees 112,224 total operations annually.

~snip~

3. The F-35s aren’t bringing any new jobs to the Vermont Guard

In an interview with VPR’s Neal Charnoff, the Adjutant General for the state of Vermont Steve Cray said the F-35s won’t lead to any new jobs for the Vermont Air National Guard, since staffing for the 18 F-35s would be equivalent to the staffing for the 18 F-16s the Guard already has. That doesn’t mean the new fighter jets won’t make a difference, he said. Without the new planes, Cray said the guard’s future would have been uncertain, as the F-16s they currently use will soon be too old to fly.

4. Opponents say F-35s are too loud and too new to fly in Burlington

The F-35s are louder than the F-16s the Guard uses now. According to the Final Environmental Impact Statement issued by the U.S. Air Force, “In all instances the F-35 generates noise levels greater than the F-16s.”