Response to Questions for Fayetteville NC Page: 61 of 72
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SECTION 9: CONCLUSION
The Airlift Wing at Pope AFB and the highly trained and diverse forces at Fort
Bragg constitute a valuable and unique power projection capability that cannot be
replicated anywhere else in the world. Breaking up this team and transferring Pope AFB
to the Army would be a mistake that could affect our country's capability to respond
quickly and with overwhelming force to a crisis or contingency. The proposal to realign
Pope AFB ignores the value of joint training, joint planning and joint war fighting. It was
based on Air Force priorities to consolidate an aging C-130 fleet at another base and
transfer to the Army the expense of operating and maintaining the airfield. If the airfield
is transferred, the Army will still need to maintain the airfield and perform airfield
functions normally performed by the Air Force. Due to the late approval of this proposal
by DOD, the Army did not understand or estimate the cost, manpower requirements and
complexity of maintaining the airfield and installation at a level consistent with
deployment and surge operations. Although the BRAC statute requires costs transferred
to other DOD and non-DOD organizations are accounted for, these costs were not
reflected in the cost analysis for this proposal.
We are concerned that the analytical process used by the Air Force did not
accurately reflect the military value of Pope AFB and the role of the Airlift Wing in
supporting joint operations. Although Pope AFB was rated the number one base in the
Air Force for supporting Special Operations Forces and Combat Search and Rescue, and
number three for supporting airlift, the Military Capability Indexes were weighted so low
for deployment and surge capability that it received very little credit for these scores, and
was rated 49th overall. In other Mission Areas, Pope AFB lost more points for its 7500 ft
runway and distance from training space than the maximum available for deployment and
surge capability. The quantitative process used to establish Military Value was flawed
resulting in inaccurate scores and justification that supported the proposal to disestablish
the Airlift Wing. These inequalities are discussed in the MCI section of this response.
The airfield functions, operational planning expertise and joint relationship between Fort
Bragg and Pope AFB that are critical to contingencies, deployment and surge operations,
far outweigh the lack of additional growth and operational factors in other mission areas.
The capability to support combat operations with C-130Js, with increased range and
payload, was also not considered.
Due to these significant deviations from selection criteria, and even more
importantly, the significant degradation to our country's crisis reaction capability, we
strongly recommend the following:
* That the BRAC Commission reverse the proposal to disestablish the 43rd
Airlift Wing;
* That the Air Force continues to operate the airfield and not transfer Pope
AFB to the Army; and
* That the installation be established as Joint Base Bragg/Pope.
Thank you for consideration of this information and of our recommendations.21
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Response to Questions for Fayetteville NC, text, July 25, 2005; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc18496/m1/61/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.