Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky reminded Gazette readers earlier this week of the pivotal role Aurora’s Buckley Space Force Base plays in our national security – and of the need to keep this longtime military installation on the cutting edge.

“This is not simply a parochial ‘jobs and the economy’ issue,” Jurinsky wrote in a commentary published on these pages on Monday. “As a veteran I believe in a modernized, well-equipped, and battle-ready U.S. Air Force, and Air National Guard. The daily reports of shootdowns of ‘objects’ in U.S. airspace is the latest, and very dramatic, example of how we never know where threats will come from, or why we will call on our fighter jets to safeguard our airspace.”

The small-business owner turned elected official has firsthand experience. She served in the Air Force on the flight line at Buckley, assisting runway operations for the 140th Wing of the Colorado Air National Guard.

“To say this is personal for me is an understatement,” Jurinsky wrote. “As a grateful veteran who appreciates Buckley’s strategic military role and now as a member of council who knows that the base is an indispensable pillar of the regional economy, advocating for the base is among my most passionate priorities.”

That’s why, as Jurinsky points out, Coloradans and especially the state’s congressional delegation in the nation’s capital must rally around the base and advocate for the modernization of the 140th’s aging F-16 fighters. Whether that means replacing them with the new, state-of-the-art F-35, as Jurinsky recommends, or simply upgrading the wing’s aircraft to a later generation of F-16s, replacement is needed soon as the current fleet of F-16s nears the end of its airworthiness. And shutting the wing down simply isn’t an option.

The base’s fighters and their seasoned Air National Guard pilots are regularly rotated abroad and have been deployed in combat operations in the Middle East. The wing also would be among the first to scramble into action in the event of an attack on the territorial U.S.

The 140th’s operations of course represent only one way that Buckley serves our national defense. Its wide-ranging mission in fact covers a lot of ground. As the base’s Space Force designation implies, Buckley is, among many other things, also a linchpin in our military’s network of satellites. It operates reconnaissance satellites that detect missile or spacecraft launches and nuclear explosions around the globe. That helps coordinate American military operations abroad and also defends our home turf against a strategic nuclear attack.

And, to be sure, Buckley also contributes significantly to the economic lifeblood of Aurora and the entire Denver metro area. It supports 3,500 active-duty members from every military service, 4,000 National Guard personnel and reservists, four commonwealth international partners, 2,400 civilians, 2,500 contractors, and approximately 88,000 retirees, veterans and dependents combined. It all adds some $1.3 billion annually to the local economy.

Maintaining the 140th Wing as a fighting force is central to all of that, and as Jurinsky noted, the Biden administration’s cuts to the F-35 program jeopardize that priority. Reducing the number of F-35s produced for the Air Force would hinder Buckley’s ability to modernize either through acquisition of the F-35 itself or by getting newer-generation F-16s that F-35 deployment would free up.

In other words, it’s time for a full-court press.

“We are counting on our federal delegation, including two leaders on defense policy, Rep. Jason Crow and Rep. Doug Lamborn, to again carry the flag for Buckley and for Colorado’s defense economy,” Jurinsky wrote. “Their efforts may need to be more intense than ever.”

Agreed.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board