Fort Smith and a legacy of national security

Beginning next spring, the sound of combat aircraft will fill our skies again, pending an environmental study of Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith that is due to be released in March 2023.

It will be the sound of maintaining the free world order, freedom and democracy at home and abroad. Veterans may hear it with nostalgia and recall the good feeling of air superiority. The sounds will burst with our legacy of commitment to national security and a peaceful world order.

The U.S. Air Force announced in June 2021 that the Arkansas Air National Guard base was chosen as the preferred location for a pilot training center to support F-16 and F-35 fighter planes purchased by countries participating in the Foreign Military Sales program.

It is apt for us to host such a place, given our history of contributing to the security requirements of the United States. Fort Smith has played a major role in national defense since its establishment in 1817 as a far western outpost. Later, a larger, more substantial fort was built, and we became home to the U.S. Western District Court and  Camp Chaffee. As the nation’s needs changed, so did our role.

Those needs are changing again. A recently aggressive Russia in Europe, and China in the Indo-Pacific, poses a threat to global peace and stability. The pilot training center is our opportunity to play a part in the training and readiness of our allies who exist close to the antagonists.

In May, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a speech clarifying American policy on China, calling the 2020s a "decisive decade."

In his speech, Blinken stated, “Since 1945, America and its allies have built a global order that has to a large degree kept the peace and promoted the well-being of people around the world … No country had benefited from this order more than China, whose current power and prosperity were due to the opportunities the American-backed system offered for growth through trade. Rather than using its power to uphold and develop the world system, however, China has chosen to challenge it.”

The Wall Street Journal article "Blinken's Indo-Pacific Blueprint" (May 30, 2022) reads, “Mr. Blinken pledged to work with American allies to compete effectively with China economically, diplomatically and militarily to ensure the survival and prosperity of the current world system.”

It is ironic that a Communist country became wealthy within the world order they now seek to undermine. This underscores the importance of global alliances and cooperation. We are truly at a crossroads with authoritarian leaders who seek to safeguard and expand their own power at the expense of their sovereign neighbors.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has made this clear in Europe. Ukraine chose closer ties to the West and were never a threat to Russia. It was President Vladimir Putin who felt threatened by the possibility of Ukrainian prosperity – if his neighbor prospered, like Poland has, with closer ties to the West, Russian citizens may demand reforms that he is unwilling to make.

If the 2020s are to be a decisive decade, the pilot training center is Fort Smith's opportunity to contribute again.

Should the environmental report be positive, Fort Smith can expect the arrival of F-16s around June 2023 and the first F-35s in July 2024. The first training contingent will be the Singapore Air Force.

Singapore sits near the vital shipping lane of the Malacca Strait. It is the busiest strait in the world and the primary shipping route between the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Ebbing could eventually host personnel of other countries' air forces over the course of the program, including Poland and Finland, and the base could remain indefinitely. Poland and Finland share a border with Russia; Poland as a member of NATO and Finland recently applied for membership.

It is interesting to be part of the leading edge, helping shape the logistics, strategy and tactics of the free world.

Columnist Walter Russell Mead said, “the secret weapon of American diplomacy is the deep community of interest between the U.S. and the peoples of the Indo-Pacific.”

For the people of Fort Smith, the community of interest sits close to home.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas Air National Guard Base chosen as training location