Hill's high score heartens boosters
Utah air base's rating improves its survivability
After months of doom and gloom in preparation for the release of the Pentagon's list of proposed bases up for realignment or closure, an Air Force Base Realignment and Closure report shows Hill didn't have much to worry about.
The base ranked first in two of the eight categories the Air Force used to rank military value among its 154 facilities nationwide.
A computer-assisted analysis of Pentagon data by the Deseret Morning News shows that Hill's combined average score for all eight categories was 10th-highest among air bases. The Pentagon did not provide an overall military value score.
Still, by any Pentagon measurement, Hill was ranked with the elite among air bases for military value, and far higher than the 10 Air Force bases that were proposed for closure nationwide.
But it is Hill's ranking among bases' ability to host fighter missions that really has base backers excited. Hill ranked 14th out of 154 Air Force facilities.
"This is the best news of all," said Vickie McCall, president of the Utah Defense Alliance. "We didn't anticipate we would be that highly ranked."
The Pentagon evaluated all 154 Air Force facilities and their ability to host eight missions: fighter, bomber, tanker, airlift, special operations/combat search and rescue, command and control/covert operations, unmanned aerial vehicles and space operations.
Each mission was evaluated by a number of criteria, including cost, growth potential, quality of ranges and encroachment.
The Utah Test and Training Range likely boosted Hill's ranking in the fighter mission category, McCall said.
The range includes some 12,574 square miles of airspace, where F-16 pilots can train in air-to-air combat in a geographical match of the places U.S. troops are fighting today — Iraq and Afghanistan.
"That is the most prime piece of real estate in the world," said Col. Gary Batanich, commander of Hill's 419th Fighter Wing. "It's priceless."
Current BRAC commissioner and former Utah Congressman Jim Hansen said the range is an asset the state can use to bring in more workload.
"The Utah Test and Training Range has a great potential for future aircraft, like the Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22," Hansen said in a recent BRAC commission meeting. Earlier this week, Hansen and three other commissioners recused themselves from decisions involving bases in states with which they are associated.
The Pentagon's rankings caught some by surprise.
Hill, a base known for its F-16s, was ranked No. 1 in military value to host a tanker mission. Oklahoma's Tinker Air Force Base, an air logistics center known for its tanker maintenance, came in fourth behind Hill.
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