Beale in running to host recon plane

It's got spare hangars, surveillance personnel, and diverse training environments nearby — all the right stuff to qualify Beale Air Force Base as a contender.

Beale is among six installations approved by the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force to be considered for long-term placement of MC-12W aircraft operations.

The decision represents a potential influx of 600-900 airmen and support personnel to the base.

Beale's 9th Reconnaissance Wing serves as the interim parent wing for the Air Force's newest intelligence surveillance reconnaissance aircraft, which deployed for its first combat sorties in June at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

Col. Robert Yahn Jr., vice commander of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, oversees about 20 MC-12W spy planes.

"We provide supervision to get the aircraft from the U.S. to the theater," he said Tuesday.

Beale, with its sprawling 23,000 acres, leftover hangar space from what had been a refueling wing and other resources "is darned near ready-made," to become the MC-12W's home, Yahn said. "That's why it's on the list."

The aircraft, a Hawker Beechcraft King Air-350 airframe with customized sensors, requires four aircrew members — two pilots, a sensor operator and a signals intelligence specialist. It was initiated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2008. Gates dubbed his ramped up efforts to get the planes in operation, "Project Liberty."

Analysts on the ground are able to view imagery captured by the plane's sensors and listen to telephone conversations between insurgents in real time, according to an article in the Air Force Times.

MC-12W personnel are trained at the Mississippi Air National Guard's Key Field in Meridian. The aircraft began operations earlier this month in Southern Afghanistan.

About 30 MC-12Ws are expected to be deployed by the end of summer, according to Yahn.

During the third week of May, Beale will host 15 inspectors — most of them from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, home of Air Combat and Control — who are expected to survey the site for its potential as MC-12W's future home.

In late March, four local civilians from the Beale Liaison Group accompanied Yahn to Washington, D.C., to speak to members of Congress and their military affairs advisers about the base's candidacy and impress upon them the importance of the potential designation as home to the MC-12W.

"The bottom line is, for Northern California particularly, a potential improvement in the economy," said Beale Liaison Group member Janice Nall. "And Beale is a good fit for the Air Force."

Other candidates for the MC-12W include Altus Air Force Base, Okla.; Key Field Air Guard Station, Miss.; Langley Air Force Base, Va.; Robins Air Force Base, Ga., and Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. The bases were selected using previously announced criteria.

Formal environmental impact studies will follow the site surveys, and a final decision is expected in spring 2011.

Yahn said he hopes such factors as Beale's involvement in Global Hawk and U-2 programs — as well as the fact that it is the only base where intelligence from spy planes is both collected and analyzed — will be considered.

Though the base's proximity to various kinds of terrain had not been a formal part of the initial criteria, Yahn said the fact that Beale is near the coast, the desert and the Sierras should also make it attractive for training purposes.

His role with the MC-12W, he said, makes up a significant proportion of his job at Beale, he said.

"But it's small potatoes compared to a basing decision," he said.

CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com.