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Navy's decision on home basing Joint Strike Fighter squadron delayed

News | November 21, 2013

The Navy has delayed the decision to choose a location for the Joint Strike Fighter Squadron F-35C due to the government shutdown earlier this year.
 
Naval Air Station Lemoore and Navy Air Facility El Centro have been the top two choices for the F-35C squadron for some time, according to the Draft Environmental Impact Study. The final Environmental Impact Study, expected to be released by the end of the year, will not be finalized for several more months.
 
“I think every delay to date seems to have benefited us and given us the opportunity to provide better information to the Environmental Impact Statement they are preparing,” said Sue Giller, a member of Imperial Valley United for Joint Strike Fighter.
Lisa Gallinat, co-chairwoman of the coalition, said they have certainly made a great argument for home basing it in El Centro.
 
“We’re happy they’re taking the time to make an informed decision,” she said.
Although the DEIS favors Lemoore for the home base location, the Joint Strike Fighter Coalition has been lobbying in Washington, D.C., to show Congress and the Navy that basing the squadron in El Centro is the best location.
 
“We are convinced that NAF El Centro is the best place to home base the Joint Strike Fighter,” Giller said. “It’s good for our community and even more it’s good for our economy.”
Joint Strike Fighter Coalition member Jack Terrazas said the good news with this delay is that the Navy can revisit the numbers and see the difference in costs overall.
 
“If it was a slam-dunk decision, they would have made it already and they wouldn’t need the extra time,” he said.
Basing the Joint Strike Fighter squadron in El Centro would save the Navy about $128 million a year after it spends the money for the infrastructure, Giller said.
 
“I think that’s a conservative number,” she said. “It has to do significantly with the distance to the ranges, which are very close to NAF El Centro.”
Supervisor Mike Kelley said the county has invested a lot of money to get the Joint Strike Fighter because having it here would be a tremendous boost for the unemployment rate and the economy.
 
“Obviously NAF El Centro in its current state is a huge economic benefit in this region,” said El Centro Councilwoman Cheryl Viegas-Walker. “Anything we can do to augment this will be to our benefit.”
 
Giller said the base provides an economic benefit of $115 million a year.
 
“With the growth of base and the all new positions, you can look at that number and just know it’s going to expand. The idea is it would likely more than double,” she said according to information provided from the Economic Impact and Community Involvement Analysis done by the Navy base in 2010.
 
El Centro City Council recently gave $10,000 to help with the cost of the lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and was asked to send a representative on a trip in December with coalition members and other officials. However, the trip may now be delayed.
 
“I think the extension of time works in our favor,” Viegas-Walker said. “I think this means we can have more planning go into our trip to maximize our opportunity to meet with the right people at the right time and to put the finishing touches on our proposal.”
 
Terrazas said his personal opinion is that the delay is unfortunate.
 
“It’s good in a way, but from a budgetary standpoint it’s not good for us,” he said.
 
With the additional time, the expenses of the committee will run longer and the expense of the lobbyist will be more as well. He added that the committee has not met and discussed its plans in light of the situation, but they will need to re-strategize some things.
 
Staff Writer Krista Daly can be reached at 760-337-3445 or kdaly@ivpressonline.com