If Congressman Sam Graves has his way, the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing which operates the city-owned air control tower at Rosecrans Airport in St. Joseph, Mo., will get a new tower to train its controllers. The airport is dual-use—civilian and military—which Graves, according to KMBZ radio in Kansas City, hopes will make getting funding easier. The radio station reports that the city tried and failed to enlist FAA support for a new tower. The 139th AW is still a viable entity even though it does have to give up two of its 12 C-130 aircraft under BRAC 2005 cuts.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.