Active duty airmen and Hawaii Air National Guardsmen assigned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam last week broke ground on a maintenance hangar and operations facility for the base’s new F-22s. Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie (D) and additional guests attended the event, which ceremoniously commenced construction of the new $37.1 million, 77,500-square-foot complex, reported the Honolulu Star Advertiser. The Hawaii Air Guard’s 154th Wing’s at Pearl Harbor-Hickam is establishing a force of 20 F-22s that its 199th Fighter Squadron will operate together with the active duty 19th FS under an active association. The base’s first two F-22s arrived last July. According to the Star Advertiser, seven F-22s are now at Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The ongoing grounding of the F-22 fleet already has delayed the arrival of additional aircraft from the US mainland.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…