CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Federal defense spending cuts have resulted in more than 100 layoffs of civilian workers at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base, but it appears the Wyoming Air National Guard will escape any reductions in its cargo plane mission for now, a Cheyenne chamber of commerce official said.
"I do think in general, at least currently, we feel pretty good that we came out of those cuts, we came out pretty good," Dale G. Steenbergen, president and CEO of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce, said. "So we're hopeful we're not going to take a huge cut here."
Tucker Fagan, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said Thursday that the only change the U.S. Air Force plans with the Wyoming Air Guard's 12 C-130s is to switch out one older cargo plane for a newer model that matches 11 others stationed in Cheyenne.
Federal defense spending is being reduced by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years as part of a plan to reduce government deficits. Some cuts have already taken place, and President Barack Obama is proposing additional reductions by further shrinking the military, shutting bases and cancelling weapons.
The offices of Rep. Cynthia Lummis and Sen. Mike Enzi, both R-Wyo., note that more details on proposed defense cuts will come Monday when Obama is scheduled to release his proposed budget.
Brig. Gen Harold Reed, chief of staff of the Wyoming Air National Guard, said he isn't privy to decisions on why Cheyenne escaped cuts in its air cargo mission.
But Reed said Cheyenne is among the few C-130 airlift bases in the region and is one of only four units in the country that has C-130s with firefighting capability.
"The C-130 is a good home domestic airplane for the governor and this nation," he said.
The Wyoming Guard planes are based at a facility located next to the Cheyenne airport. The Guard's 153rd Airlift Wing, which includes squadrons associated with the C-130s, has about 1,420 airmen.
Steenbergen said about 110 civilian jobs have been cut so far at F.E. Warren, a nuclear missile base located on the west side of Cheyenne and separate from the airport. The base employed just over 1,000 civilian workers before the cuts took place, he said.
While much remains unknown about future job cuts, Steenbergen said he expects more at F.E. Warren.
"There will be a significant number of layoffs of civilian employees across the United States and certainly Warren will not be immune," he said.
In addition, it's still unclear what a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia will mean for F.E. Warren, he said. The treaty would reduce the number of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Cheyenne base is one of three U.S. ICBM bases.
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