The controversial F-35 fighter jets will arrive in Burlington in 2019, one year ahead of schedule, the U.S. Air Force announced Monday.
“The Air Force is facing a shortage of experienced, active-duty fighter aircraft maintainers as we transition from legacy aircraft to the F-35A,” said Lt. Gen. John Cooper, the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for logistics, engineering and force protection, in a statement released Monday. “Adjusting the initial plan and slightly accelerating F-35A arrivals at Burlington Air Guard Station … to fall 2019 will allow the service to stick to the overall F-35 rollout schedule, while capitalizing on the Air National Guard’s experienced fighter aircraft maintenance force as we put additional measures in place to increase the number of trained active-duty maintainers.”
The Vermont Air National Guard, based at Burlington International Airport, was the first reserve unit in the country scheduled to receive the next-generation fighter jets, despite vocal opposition from environmentalists and local residents concerned about noise.
Local opponents have filed a lawsuit in federal court trying to prevent the F-35s from arriving in Vermont.
The Air Force has said that 18 F-35s will be based in Vermont, replacing the F-16 fighter jets currently stationed in Burlington.
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The Department of Defense spends so much of our money in ways that do not benefit or protect citizens, but does benefit military contractors and others who lobby congress. Conscientious military leadership has admitted as much but their voices are drowned out by congress. Corruption is rife throughout the military and millions of dollars disappear every single day. So much money that the DOD admits it’s impossible for them to trace or monitor or even attempt to account for where it goes. People who seek obscene wealth and power have caused the downfall of every society. So bring in these overpriced, underperforming planes as we watch our infrastructure crumble, young adults struggle to live with mountainous college debt, and basic human services other countries enjoy, such as free health care and high-speed public transport, continue to be an impossible dream in America. Meanwhile we can rest easy as these planes will keep New England safe from terrorists crashing planes into buildings, Canadian invasion, and North Korean nuclear attacks.
Shame on you for NOT listening to the thousands of family’s that live in the neighborhoods THAT DO NOT WANT the F-35’s flying over them. Shame on you for subjecting them to piercing abnormal noise levels and causing environmental ruin with planes that are still faulty and will fly low patterns on the flight path that come so close to our houses and apartment complexes that they rumble and shake buildings during the day and night, frightening us with their potential crashes. Shame on you for having BTV and its surrounding areas be the testing ground as their mechanics and pilots go through a “learning curve” on the operation of these dangerous machines. Shame on you for the military NOT responding or being accountable, instead they drag out law suits from citizens and fail to explain exactly HOW BTV was the very FIRST PICK for these military machines from countless OTHER sites that were better suited for their flying. Shame on you for using our tax monies (35 Million for EACH military plane) and still not being able to develop a properly working machine with error free landing and flying gears. Shame on you to think that saving 1,000 VTANG jobs is far more important than the working families, schools, churches and businesses these huge military jets are endangering. Shame on the VTANG and BTV airport for NOT respecting and working with their neighborhoods and considering an alternative flight pattern for this bomb carrying war planes that would NOT fly over heavy populated areas. Shame on Leahy, Sanders, Shumlin, etc. for not having our best interest at hear, turning a deaf ear, and thinking that this military presence was the ONLY way to boost our Vermont economy. Shame on the people for NOT speaking out and challenging this potentially dangerous decision…
Jeepers , I thought this was an article about new aircraft replacing existing ones at their current airport . I didn’t realize that we should be fighting their deployment because war is bad and too much is spent on the military .
This reminds me of the terrible disgrace where Vermont police departments are given surplus equipment from the military . It is horrible because war is bad and too much is spent on the military so they should not take free stuff . .
So yaya war is bad and too much is spent on the military but would we rather the Air Guard shrink to nothing , lose many jobs and endanger Vermont’s single decent sized airport which relies on Guard money’s to continue to operate .
Finally the F-35’s are by most accounts quieter then the aircraft they will replace . The Geisha clearly wants to close an airport to ALL military planes which were there before she was .