Mountain Home Air Force Base outlines readiness, training and community projects to Idaho committee

Colonel Mike Alfaro, wing commander at Mountain Home Air Force Base, briefed the Idaho House Transportation and Defense Committee on the base’s mission focus, training initiatives and community projects, stressing readiness for what he called a renewed era of great‑power competition.

Alfaro told the committee the base is “laser focused on China, as our pacing threat” and said the Air Force must prepare for higher attrition and more-contested operations than in recent decades. He described exercises and organizational experiments intended to improve survivability and disperse forces, and outlined infrastructure and quality‑of‑life projects the base is pursuing with local and federal partners.

The briefing matters to Idaho communities that host training ranges, military families and local governments because it tied mission needs to local projects — including airspace changes that would allow pilots to train down to 100 feet, a multiyear water pipeline and treatment project for the base, and a federally funded elementary school to be built on the installation.

Alfaro said the base is testing new concepts for force employment. He described the Deployable Combat Wing and Air Base Wing validation exercise — called DAVE — and a two‑week exercise, Raging Gunfighter 25.1, that practiced 24‑hour operations and distributed command and control across multiple locations. “We were commanding and controlling jets at seven different locations simultaneously,” he said, noting exercises at Twin Falls, Idaho Falls and Pocatello as examples of distributed operations across Idaho.

On training airspace, Alfaro said Mountain Home is seeking Federal Aviation Administration approval to lower the floor of portions of the Mountain Home Range Complex from about 10,000 feet mean sea level to allow training down to roughly 100 feet. He said the base converted a previously defined “avoid” area into an “exclusion” at the FAA’s request and has resubmitted the proposal for final approval.

The base reported several near‑term infrastructure items: the Snake River water pipeline feeding the base is expected to be finished “this summer,” and a base water treatment plant is scheduled to be completed in October 2026. Alfaro said those projects, which move the base from at‑risk aquifer reliance to surface water, are “very complex” but “on track.”

Alfaro highlighted awards and reinvestment in personnel facilities after Mountain Home won the Commander‑in‑Chief’s Installation Excellence Award for 2024. He said the award came with more than $1,000,000 that the base used primarily to upgrade dormitory kitchens, industrial washers/dryers and day rooms.

On personnel posture and modernization, Alfaro noted congressional language in recent defense authorization provisions prevents divestment of older F‑15 engines through at least fiscal year 2027; Mountain Home has one American squadron that flies aircraft with older engines and therefore will not lose those airframes through FY27. He also said the base is in final negotiations with a foreign air force (transcript: “SAFI A”) for a planned rotational presence of about 12 jets and roughly 150 personnel, with arrival expected in the 2027–2030 timeframe.

Alfaro described school and family programs as central to retention. He said the base will build a new Stevenson Elementary School (K–6) on the installation with a 20 percent local match under the federal Public School on Military Installation program; Representative Simpson’s community project funding grant was cited as covering the local share. He also described expansion of the Purple Star Initiative to help military‑connected students and said Stevenson Elementary was the first Purple Star school in Idaho.

Committee members questioned readiness and implementation details. Representative Crane asked whether upgraded jets or equipment would be state assets; Alfaro replied those upgrades and rotations are federal. Representative Clow asked how the 20 percent school share was paid; Alfaro cited the federal program and a community project funding grant. Representative Harris pressed for the FAA’s concerns; Alfaro described the airspace wording change from “avoid” to “exclusion” and said the proposal is back with the FAA.

Representative Hill, a retired Air Force captain, told the committee he will introduce legislation to restrict access to portions of the training range by foreign actors: “We’re going to shut that whole range down. No Chinese or any of those adversaries can buy anything in that range,” he said.

The committee approved routine minutes from Jan. 20 by voice vote before the presentation and later voted to move into an executive session for an unclassified intelligence briefing from Mountain Home intelligence staff. Both motions carried by voice vote with no recorded opposition.

The presentation closed after questions and the committee recessed into executive session; base and local partners were invited to remain for photographs after the meeting.