By Michael Sirak
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany–Lajes in the Portuguese Azores is an appealing location to host a training range for the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter as well as additional modern aircraft and weapon systems due to the vast airspace and sparsely inhabited areas around it, the Air Force’s top general in Europe said here.
“I have talked to the Portuguese Air Force chief about it and he is willing to explore the idea,” Gen. William Hobbins, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), said Nov. 14 during a meeting with reporters.
Hobbins and his public affairs representative said using Lajes in this capacity is only an idea at this point that would have to go through the proper channels of approval in Portugal and the United States before implementation.
“I am just thinking out loud now,” Hobbins said, adding, however, that he has broached the topic with U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley as well as the service’s other senior generals.
The Air Force currently uses Lajes Field as a stop-off point for aircraft in transit to and from Europe.
“We fly there routinely,” said Hobbins. “We have a good runway and it is out in the middle of the water and I know it has training space.”
The airspace around the islands would allow the F-35 as well as the Air Force’s new F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet to maneuver at supersonic speeds without the constraints of existing training ranges, Hobbins said.
“The F-22, the F-35, they go very fast,” he said, “[They cover] lots of space in very short periods of time and they could very well use a large, expansive airspace that has no inhabitants underneath.”
Lockheed Martin [LMT] builds both the F-22 and F-35. While the F-22 is also in service, the F-35 is scheduled to enter the fleet in the first half of next decade.
Lajes likely would also be able to accommodate the training needs for advanced weapons systems in coming decades, such as hypersonic missiles, directed-energy devices and new types of aerial platforms, Hobbins said.
“Weapons are going to advance to the extent that we are going to need large areas to operate in,” he said.
Another alluring attribute of Lajes is that it is only one hour’s of flight time further away from Langley AFB, Va., a major U.S. fighter hub, than is Nellis AFB, Nev., one of the Air Force’s main training ranges, from Langley, Hobbins said.
Further, the islands’ proximity to land and water offers the opportunity to conduct air training integrated with amphibious, land, maritime and undersea training activities, Hobbins said.
But Lajes is not alone in Europe in showing promise as a joint training range, Hobbins said. Mikhail Kogalniceanu (MK) Air Base, Romania, on the coast of the Black Sea is also quite appealing in that role, he said.
“MK is for sure a great place to train,” Hobbins said.
The U.S. Army in Europe is leading in the establishment of Joint Task Force-East at the base with Air Force participation, so the site will be inherently joint, he said.
“We would have then the capability to train in an air-land environment,” Hobbins said, noting that “air-land integration is something we need to improve upon.”
MK also has more airspace than Nellis and the area is unencumbered by a lot of air traffic, especially at lower altitudes, while offering large maneuver areas on land, Hobbins said.
“You have a very large expanse of Army ground maneuver space that is underneath,” he said. “Flat terrain where you could maneuver forces over great areas…so you could really get into how the Army maneuvers its forces and how we interconnect from above and through space.”
Like Lajes, the Romanian base also borders water to accommodate joint sea training activities, Hobbins said. Further, MK is near mountains, which is “perfect for helicopter training” such as combat-search-and-rescue missions, he said.
Hobbins also said Konya Air Base, Turkey, south of Ankara, will remain a valued training site for USAFE.
As USAFE looks to larger ranges and greater joint training opportunities, the command is also looking to exploit modern simulation capabilities so that it can interweave real missions with virtual and constructive activities to create a greater training experience, he said. “I think the future is going to have more of that and so we have to kind of develop these at the same time,” he said.