Luke development ruling improves F-35 chances

[unhappycamper]

Luke development ruling improves F-35 chances
By David Madrid - The Arizona Republic
Posted : Monday Feb 16, 2009 17:10:28 EST

Mayors in towns near Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., are ecstatic that a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled in the state’s favor and against Maricopa County in upholding a law that prevents residential encroachment on Luke and its Auxiliary Field 1.

The mayors say the decision by Judge Edward Burke lifts a heavy burden from base advocates who feared the lawsuit could damage Luke’s ability to land the F-35 Lightning II, more commonly called the Joint Strike Fighter.

“We’re just very, very happy that this issue has finally come to a conclusion,” Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs said. “This is what the County Board of Supervisors wanted, was to have a legal opinion from the courts. So now they have that opinion, and now we can move on. I’m just happy it’s behind us, and I feel it came out the way we always thought it would come out, that the state law applied to everybody, including Maricopa County.”

Goodyear Mayor Jim Cavanaugh, a retired Air Force colonel, said, “Rest assured, decision makers in Washington are reading that , and I think that will be very helpful to us in our efforts to bring a new weapons system to Luke.”

Luke, currently the world’s largest F-16 training base, is one of two sites being considered as a second-tier Air Force training base for the new F-35. Base advocates fear that if the new-generation aircraft doesn’t replace the aging F-16, the base will close as F-16s are withdrawn from service.


Rest of article at: http://airforcetimes.com/news/2009/02/gns_luke_f35_021309w/%2e