GLENDALE, Ariz. – Arizona’s local and state government officials, as well as the Arizona congressional delegation, are delighted with today’s decision that the Air Force has selected Luke Air Force Base as the preferred location for the new F-35 Pilot Training Center.

With today’s decision by the Air Force, Luke is poised to transition from its current F-16 training mission to become the Air Force’s F-35 “school house,” subject to completion of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process that is currently underway.

“Today’s announcement is great news for our region and our state and represents a major milestone and the most critical stage in the F-35 site selection process,” said Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs.

“Although we realize there is more work ahead of us, we are extremely grateful to our state’s congressional delegation, the Arizona Legislature, Governor Jan Brewer, Attorney General Terry Goddard, and citizens and businesses for working closely with us to champion and support the F-35 coming to Luke Air Force Base through our Luke Forward campaign,” Scruggs said.

The campaign was developed locally to send a clear, strong message to the Department of Defense that Arizona supports Luke Air Force Base continuing to serve as one of the country’s premier fighter pilot training facilities and to raise awareness of the critical role Luke plays in our national defense and the state’s economy.

The campaign was created by the West Valley Partners and Fighter Country Partnership. The West Valley Partners include Avondale, Buckeye, Glendale, Gila Bend, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Maricopa County, Peoria, Phoenix, Surprise, Tolleson, Wickenburg and Youngtown.

Gov. Brewer said the Air Force’s decision is, in part, the result of all levels of local and state governments, as well as the private sector, working in partnership on a common vision.

“We all know that Luke is the ideal location for this next generation fighter, but I also believe that today’s decision demonstrates Arizona’s ability to roll up our sleeves and work together for the betterment of our state,” she said.

“It’s critical that we continue to do all we can to preserve current and future missions at our military installations in order to keep this very important industry viable in our state.”

Luke Air Force Base and other military installations in the state collectively represent one of the largest industries in Arizona and generate more than $9 billion annually in economic impact statewide. Luke alone contributes more than 8,000 jobs and $2.17 billion annually to Arizona’s economy, according to a recent study commissioned by the state.

Fighter Country Partnership (FCP) Chairman Charley Freericks, who is co-chairing the Luke Forward campaign with Scruggs, credits community support for today’s decision.
“Local community support of military bases is very important back in Washington, and we know the tremendous Valley and statewide support for Luke Air Force Base really helped us,” said Freericks, a senior vice president at DMB Associates.

“We reached literally tens of thousands of Arizonans through our citizen and business outreach initiatives, and community support for Luke Air Force Base was overwhelming. There is no question that this strong level of support was a significant factor in the Air Force’s decision to site the F-35 at Luke.”

Today’s announcement is being made prior to the release of the Air Force’s draft F-35 basing EIS document, which is anticipated to be published in the next 30 days. The Air Force is required to conduct an environmental assessment of each potential F-35 site before making its final basing decision.

This federally mandated assessment, which is referred to as the EIS process, allows individual citizens and communities around candidate bases to provide input during the formal evaluation of each base.

The Draft EIS will serve as the Air Force’s notice of intent to proceed. Once the Draft EIS is released, in which Luke will be identified as the Air Force’s preferred site, public hearings will be held later this year.

Once the public hearings are held and the comment period concludes, the Air Force will release its final EIS document that will provide responses to comments received from the public.

After the Final EIS document is published, there will be an additional 30-day public review period. After reviewing comments received during this time frame and after considering any environmental impacts, the Air Force will making its final basing decision. It is anticipated the Air Force’s final “Record of Decision,” which will conclude the EIS process, will be made in early 2011.

A recently released study created for the city of El Mirage that attempts to connect the basing of the F-35 at Luke Air Force Base to lower property values in the West Valley is merely the researcher’s opinion and not based on relevant facts.

Federal law requires the Air Force to conduct a formal Environment Impact Statement (EIS) process before any decisions are made on assigning new aircraft to Luke AFB or any other military installation. This comprehensive EIS process is currently underway at Luke and nine other sites identified by the Air Force in October. As part of the EIS, jet noise is one of the many items that will be studied and analyzed.

But rather than waiting for and analyzing Luke-specific noise data and noise contour maps that will be publicly released as part of the EIS process, ASU professor Tim Hogan made a lot of assumptions and educated guesses in developing his study’s findings. Here’s how:

• Use of Inflated decibel levels for the F-35 – In the study, Hogan assigns a 10-12 decibel increase in noise levels for the F-35 compared to the F-16. But noise data collected by the Air Force Research Lab, shows only an estimated 1-2 decibel increase for the F-35 during take-off and landing, based on a F-35 acoustics study conducted at Edwards AFB in 2008. Increases beyond 1-2 decibels are associated with the F-35 at full military power, which is not required for flight operations at or near Luke AFB due to the aircraft’s higher-powered engine.

• Use of inflated decibel levels for the F-35 to develop new noise contour map – Hogan provides a new noise contour map in his study to assert the impact of the F-35 will be significantly larger. Since there is no current site-specific noise contour map for the F-35 (a new one will be developed as part of the EIS process), the contour map included in the study merely reflects a “best guess” based on the inflated decibel levels (as described in the first bullet) that Hogan used in the study.

• Comparing the impact of commercial airports to a military base – In his study, Hogan compares flight operations at commercial airports with a military installation to draw conclusions on property value impacts. This is akin to comparing apples to oranges because the number of flight operations from major commercial airports that he used in his analysis is significantly higher than the number of flight operations at Luke AFB.     In addition, the setback of a military base’s flight line is significantly larger than those found at commercial airports.

• There is no evidence that shows how the F-35 basing has reduced housing values –     The F-35 has not been assigned to any base yet, other than at Eglin AFB for initial testing. Thus there is no empirical data that supports Hogan’s claim. Thus, Hogan’s estimates lack hard analytical data and are purely based on his conjecture and personal assessment.

Finally, now is not the time to rush to premature conclusions based on hypothetical data that is contained in studies such as Hogan’s. Thus, we urge you to wait for the site-specific data and facts that will be released as part of the EIS process relating to basing the F-35 at Luke. Once we all receive the same data and facts, we can begin having informed, productive discussions on the similarities, differences and impacts of Luke’s aircraft fleet moving from F-16s to F-35s.

The town of Buckeye has supported the mission of Luke Air Force Base for decades. Just recently, the Town Council unanimously approved a resolution strongly encouraging the U. S. Department of Defense, Congress and the Administration to designate Luke Air Force Base as a training site for the Air Force version of the F-35 Lightning II fighter.

The operations at Luke AFB have impacted people from all walks of life and from every state in the nation. Since 1988, Luke Air Force Base has trained 16,270 fighter pilots to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon and graduated 9,071 crew chiefs. They continue to play a critical role in protecting America’s freedom and security worldwide.

The presence of Luke and other military bases in Arizona contribute significantly to the state and local economies. Luke AFB alone contributes more than 8,000 jobs and $2 billion annually to our state’s economy. Luke’s economic impact is especially critical in light of the current budget crisis facing the state and every community in Arizona.

Our jewel to the south, the Barry M. Goldwater Range, provides highly flexible joint military service training and realistic combat missions. Each year, fighters from Luke AFB conduct more than 30,000 air-to-air gunnery and air-to-ground bombing training at the 1.7-million acre facility located between Yuma and Tucson.

The town of Buckeye and other West Valley communities have revised their development plans and/or set aside property in the area to protect Luke’s training mission. Buckeye is home to many of the brave men and women who support Luke’s current fighter training mission. Buckeye is where their families live and their children are educated. And, we hope Buckeye will be able to welcome a new generation of F-35 personnel and their families to our community as well.

In addition to protecting our nation’s defense and being an economic asset to the state, Luke AFB has a profoundly positive impact in our communities. Base personnel volunteer more than 100,000 hours annually at local schools, churches, youth sports leagues and non-profit organizations.

Our Town Council’s recent resolution illustrates the unwavering support and commitment of Buckeye residents to Luke Air Force Base – for the current F-16 training mission and as the future training site for the new F-35.

Since launching Luke Forward in October 2009, our website has had nearly 25,000 visits.  Even more important, you and almost 15,000 other champions have registered their steadfast support for bringing the F-35 Lightning II mission to Luke Air Force Base (AFB).

In December, we developed a budget for our sustained effort to communicate with Arizonans about the importance of Luke AFB being selected as a training base for the F-35.  We are grateful to report that in less than two months we have reached 40 percent of our fund raising target of $43,250 to sustain the Luke Forward educational campaign through the 18 to 24 month Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process.

Luke Forward is your campaign and we will continue our efforts to keep you up to the minute on meaningful information.  Today we are proud to announce that we have posted our budget on-line and will continue to update our expenditures monthly to share with you where your money is being invested in support of Luke AFB.

Your generous donation helped start a Luke Forward speaker’s bureau designed to educate the public on the benefits of bringing the F-35 to Luke, enable us to enhance LukeForward.com to make straightforward information more accessible to the public and produce a variety of educational materials needed to support the mission.  Without your generosity and financial support, none of this would have been possible.

We hope you will join us in reaching our fund raising goal and help spread the word to others who share support for the Luke AFB, the State of Arizona, and our United States Air Force.  A simple donation can be made online at LukeForward.com/donate, or you can also send a check payable to Luke Forward to:

Fighter Country Partnership, Inc
500 North Estrella Parkway
Suite B2, PMB 479
Goodyear, AZ 85338

We sincerely thank you for your continued support. For more information, please contact (623) 882-2191 or email contact@fightercountry.org.

Mayor Elaine Scruggs                         Charley Freericks, Chairman

Glendale, AZ                                      Fighter Country Partnership

Luke Forward Co-chair                      Luke Forward Co-chair

Fiesta Bowl
APS

Arizona Silver ($2,500)

Glendale Civic Pride Ambassadors

Arizona Bronze ($1,000)

RBF Consulting
Councilwomen Cathy Carlat, Peoria, AZ

56^th Fighter Wing ($500)

Paula Jones, Litchfield Park, AZ
Ann McCartney, Scottsdale, AZ
Pebble Creek Republican Club, Goodyear, AZ
Lana Mook, El Mirage, AZ

Joint Strike Fighter ($100)

97^th Bomb Group (H) B-17’s, Goodyear, AZ
Homewood Suites by Hilton #1, Avondale, AZ
Homewood Suites by Hilton #2 Avondale, AZ
West Valley National Bank, Avondale, AZ
Barbara Aldrich, Buckeye, AZ
Monte Allen, Phoenix, AZ
Thomas Ashby, Glendale, AZ
Chapin Bell, Scottsdale, AZ
William Berg, Tempe, AZ
George Casey, Paradise Valley, AZ
Mayor James Cavanaugh, Goodyear, AZ
Paul Chase, Sun City West, AZ
David Coon, Surprise, AZ
W. L. Cooper, Cave Creek, AZ
Sharon Dawe, Goodyear, AZ
James Dodson, Litchfield Park, AZ
Tom Eggleston, Glendale, AZ
Billie Eggleston, Glendale, AZ
Warren Field, Sun City, AZ
Judy Gates, Peoria, AZ
Stephen Gotschall, Chandler, AZ
Allen Isham, Pine, AZ
Councilmember Georgia Lord, Goodyear, AZ
Bob MacGregor, Glendale, AZ
Kenneth McCoy, Scottsdale, AZ
Steve McKeown, Sun City West, AZ
John & Lovaun McGrane, El Mirage, AZ
Christopher Nee, Houston, TX
Steve Olek, Litchfield Park, AZ
Paul Quackenbush, Peoria, AZ
Layne Rumbaugh, Phoenix, AZ
Robert Stenzel, Sun City West, AZ
Dennis Tsonis, Phoenix, AZ
Bobbie Watts, Goodyear, AZ
Richard Wiland, Mesa, AZ
Nena Wiley, Litchfield Park, AZ
Ted Yamamori, Scottsdale, AZ
John Yznaga, Wickenburg, AZ

The Air Force recently announced that it will be holding five public meetings, referred to as public-scoping meetings, February 22-26 in five communities near Luke AFB and its operations.

Public-scoping meetings are just the beginning

The upcoming meetings are part of the Environment Impact Statement process, which is required by federal law whenever a mission or aircraft change is proposed at a military base. The purpose of the public-scoping process is to actively involve citizens and government agencies in helping identify the “scope” of the issues to be addressed during the environmental analysis at Luke. These meetings will provide you with an introduction to the F-35, its capabilities and mission. Specific information on how the F-35 will be integrated at Luke as a training facility will also be covered.

Meeting schedule

Luke AFB on short list

Luke Air Force Base, currently the largest F-16 training facility in the world, is one of five training bases being considered for the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The F-35 will eventually replace the Air Force’s fleet of F-16s. For more information, visit www.LukeForward.com.

More than 200 people were in attendance at a recent meeting hosted by the city of El Mirage to discuss the potential noise impacts of the new F-35 fighter jet at Luke AFB. It was great to see that a vast majority of those in attendance were supporters of the F-35 mission landing at Luke.

During the meeting, one of the invited presenter stated the F-35 acoustic noise comparisons between Valparaiso, a city located near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and El Mirage were incomparable. He told the crowd that Valparaiso is located only one mile from Eglin’s runway, while El Mirage is located 4 ½ miles from Luke’s runway – more than four times the distance.
“All jets are loud,” said ASU professor John Rutherford. He concluded his remarks by saying that “if you like the F-16, you’ll like the F-35. If you don’t like the F-16, then you won’t like the F-35.”

The Luke Forward campaign thanks all Luke supporters, who took time out of their busy schedules to attend the meeting in Sun City. We will need that same level of participation when the Air Force begins holding public meetings early next year as part of its formal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process for stationing the F-35 at Luke.

Luke Forward campaign organizers recognize and fully support the need for public involvement regarding the F-35 mission at Luke AFB. These upcoming public meetings hosted by the Air Force represent the appropriate time for all community stakeholders – citizens, businesses and local and state government bodies – to come together and voice their support or raise possible concerns.

To help stay informed and engaged in the upcoming EIS process, please register your support today for the F-35 mission at Luke. You can register your support on this Web site. Once you register, you will receive regular updates on the Luke Forward campaign as well as additional information on the public meetings the Air Force will be hosting in January/February 2010. If you are already registered, please consider forwarding the LukeForward.com link to friends, co-workers and family. Our goal is to register 15,000 supporters by the time the EIS starts.

ARIZONA’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION UNITES IN SUPPORT OF THE F-35 MISSION COMING TO LUKE AFB

Phoenix, Ariz. – Arizona’s congressional delegation supports the new F-35 mission landing at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale.

In a unified showing, the state’s eight members of the House of Representatives and two members of the Senate said in a recent letter that Luke AFB, with its robust and modern infrastructure, provides the Air Force with a site that is extremely well-suited to support the fighter tactics and training required by the F-35 Lightning II.

Arizona’s congressional delegation sent the letter to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and General Norton Schwartz, chief of staff for the Air Force, on October 15. Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, along with Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick (District 1), Trent Franks (District 2), John Shadegg (District 3), Ed Pastor (District 4), Harry Mitchell (District 5), Jeff Flake (District 6), Raul Grijalva (District 7) and Gabrielle Giffords (District 8), all signed the letter.

In the letter, Arizona’s representatives in Washington, D.C., say: “We have worked together to enable Luke AFB and the Barry M. Goldwater Range to remain vital national assets in the Air Force’s support of the global contingency operations.”

The congressional letter is being well received by local Luke supporters.

“To have Arizona’s entire congressional delegation unify and show their unwavering support of Luke Air Force Base is a very significant step forward in helping secure Luke’s future mission,” said Charley Freericks, co-chair of the Luke Forward campaign that was recently launched to bring the F-35 to Luke AFB.

Luke is currently the largest active-duty F-16 training base in the world, and the Air Force is planning to begin replacing its fleet of F-16s with the new F-35 within the next few years.

The Luke Forward campaign is a statewide initiative developed to send a strong message to the Department of Defense that Arizona supports Luke AFB continuing to be the country’s premier fighter pilot training facility. The campaign will also raise awareness of the critical role Luke serves in the nation’s defense and in the state’s economy.

Arizona Gold Donor – $5,000

• Award of Partnership to be presented at public event
• Half-page advertisement in four editions of Visions Quarterly Newspaper – first choice of placement
• Company Logo prominently placed on Luke Forward website
• Company name or logo included in all Luke Forward press and promotional material
• Reisner level membership in Fighter Country Partnership ($5,000 value and benefits)
• VIP invitations and preferred seating at four (4) Luke AFB events
• 500 copies of Visions Quarterly Newspaper for distribution
• Luke Forward email updates

Arizona Silver Donor – $2,500

• Certificate of Partnership to be presented at public event
• Quarter-page advertisement in two editions of Visions Quarterly Newspaper
• Company Logo prominently placed on Luke Forward website
• Company name or logo included in all Luke Forward press and promotional material
• Gabreski level membership in Fighter Country Partnership ($2,500 value and benefits)
• VIP invitations to two (2) Luke AFB events
• 250 copies of Visions Quarterly Newspaper for distribution
• Luke Forward email updates

Arizona Bronze Donor – $1,000

• One eighth-page advertisement in one edition of Visions Quarterly Newspaper
• Company Logo placed on Luke Forward website
• Company name included in all Luke Forward press and promotional material
• Rickenbacker level membership in Fighter Country Partnership ($1,000 value and benefits)
• VIP invitation to one (1) Luke AFB event
• 100 copies of Visions Quarterly Newspaper for distribution
• Luke Forward email updates