WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a meeting with Dr. Ashton Carter, the nominee to be the U.S. Secretary of Defense, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown today pressed Dr. Carter on his support of the modernization of Ohio’s C-130H fleet and communications updates to meet federal and international standards by 2020, an effort that would retain jobs at Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base (ANGB).
“The C-130H fleet is critical to our emergency preparedness and overall national security and Mansfield ANGB should be a critical component of its modernization,” said Brown. “Today, I underscored the importance of modernization efforts with defense nominee Ashton Carter. If confirmed, I hope he will be steadfast in implementing efforts to make these upgrades, which will not only strengthen our lines of defense, but will also put Ohioans in Mansfield to work.”
Last December, an amendment cosponsored by Senator Brown to speed modernization of Ohio’s C-130H fleet was included as a provision in the House-Senate conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The provision will support jobs at the Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base (ANGB) by allowing the Air Force to make to make upgrades to meet federal and international standards.
The C-130 fleet is the U.S. military’s primary combat delivery aircraft, and has provided humanitarian assistance, precision airdrop, and tactical airlift missions across the globe for more than four decades. Because of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and international airspace regulatory constraints, the fleet will be largely inoperable unless major communications updates are made by 2020.
Ohio is home to more than 3,000 Air reservists, and has six Air Force bases including Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Air National Guard Bases at Mansfield, Columbus, Springfield, and Toledo as well as the Youngstown Air Reserve Station. Both the Air Force Research Lab and the Air Force Materiel Command are headquartered in Dayton at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
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