Mountain Home AFB commander briefs Idaho committee on readiness, airspace and local projects

Colonel Mike Alfaro, wing commander at Mountain Home Air Force Base, briefed the Idaho House Transportation and Defense Committee on the base’s mission priorities, training exercises, infrastructure projects and quality-of-life initiatives, and answered lawmakers’ questions about runway and airspace changes, aircraft modernization and local construction projects.

The base leader told the committee Mountain Home’s priorities are “people, preparedness, and professionalism,” and said the wing’s operational focus is aligned with national guidance that identifies China as the pacing threat. “The Air Force in Mount Home is laser focused on China, as our pacing threat,” Alfaro said, adding that training and force design must account for greater attrition and threats to the homeland.

Alfaro outlined major activities and projects. He said Mountain Home won the Commander in Chief Installation Excellence Award for 2024 and that the award included “over $1,000,000” the base used largely to upgrade dormitories and shared spaces. He highlighted recent experiments in force posture and training: a Deployable Combat Wing and Air Base Wing validation exercise (called “DAVE”) that the base hosted to test new organizational concepts, and a ‘‘Raging Gunfighter 25.1’’ exercise that included 24-hour operations and distributed command-and-control across multiple locations.

On infrastructure, Alfaro described progress on a long-running effort to secure the base’s water supply from the Snake River. “The pipeline itself should be done this summer, and the water treatment plant should be done in October 26,” he told the committee. He characterized the overall project as complex but “on track.”

He also said Mountain Home is pursuing an airspace change to allow training at lower altitudes so pilots can practice terrain-following maneuvers. The base seeks permission to lower the minimum usable altitude in portions of the Mountain Home Range Complex from about 10,000 feet mean sea level down to training as low as 100 feet; Alfaro said the proposal has been revised to address Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concerns and is back with the FAA for final approval. “We are closer than we have ever been,” he said.

Alfaro described other mission developments: Mountain Home has a detachment that manages the range complex; the base is one of six sites designated for a combat support training range to train engineers, firefighters, defenders and explosive ordnance disposal personnel; and a Singapore F-15 squadron trains at the base. He told lawmakers that negotiations are in progress to host a Qatar Air Force squadron — “about 12 jets and 150 personnel” — with arrivals expected sometime between 2027 and 2030.

On aircraft modernization, Alfaro said recent language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prevents certain planned divestments of older F-15 engines through at least fiscal 2027. Mountain Home currently operates at least one squadron whose jets retain the older engines; Alfaro said that meant the base would not face divestment of those aircraft through fiscal 2027.

Alfaro also discussed quality-of-life work under a “5 and thrive” framework covering health care, housing, spouse employment, childcare and education. He said the base expects to build a new Stevenson Elementary School (K–6) on the installation with support from a federal Public School on Military Installation funding opportunity and a community project funding grant from Representative Simpson’s office that will provide the local share. He noted Stevenson was the first school at Mountain Home recognized under the state’s Purple Star Initiative for military-connected students.

Lawmakers asked about attrition, readiness and specific technical issues. Representative Bahnke moved to approve the committee’s Jan. 20 minutes at the start of the meeting; the committee approved the minutes by voice vote. After the briefing, Representative Mitchell moved that the committee dissolve into an executive session for an unclassified intelligence briefing from Mountain Home; that motion also passed by voice vote.

The briefing, committee members said, underscored ties between Mountain Home and local communities, and left several items pending external decisions — chiefly FAA approval to change training altitudes, completion dates for the Snake River pipeline and water-treatment project, and ongoing negotiations with foreign air forces and the Air Force’s higher headquarters.