Last week, the Air Force held public hearings on possibly basing its newest fighter jets in Mountain Home. They drew about fifty people from the Treasure Valley. The search for a suitable home for the F-35A is now in its second year, but it’s unlikely the jets will actually end up in Mountain Home.
The Air Force is looking for an operations base for its F-35A fighter jet. Mountain Home and five other locations made its list of possibilities. For each, the Air Force completes an environmental impact statement, or EIS. Spokesman Ltn. David Liapis says regulations require that all six locations be studied. "Basically, all of them are given the same consideration as they go through the EIS process. However, the Air Force has stated there are two in particular that we’re looking at as our preferred alternatives."
Those two bases are located in Utah and Vermont. A final decision, though won’t be made until the fall. The Air Force is also separately considering Boise’s Gowen Field as a training base for the F-35A, though an Arizona site is its “preferred alternative.”
Copyright 2012 Boise State Public Radio