Lawmakers’ Letter Heats Up Battle of the Bases : Politics: Local congressmen propose moving East Coast test pilot school to Edwards. Maryland politicians vow to fight.

In a move that has escalated a political dogfight with their East Coast colleagues, a group of Southern California congressmen this week called on the Pentagon to move the Navy’s test pilot school in Maryland to Edwards Air Force Base.

The proposal would combine the Maryland facility with the Air Force Flight School, which currently operates at Edwards.

The letter to Defense Secretary William Perry prompted immediate cries of political interference from lawmakers representing the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.

“We will fight as hard as necessary to block any move of facilities from Patuxent River to California,” said Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.).

In response to the California lawmakers’ letter, the Maryland delegation planned one of their own. And Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) even suggested moving Edwards’ flight school to Pax River, as the Maryland base is known.

Both prestigious bases were spared in the list of base closures and realignments released last week by Perry, as was expected. But the letter sent Tuesday by Reps. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and others still comes at a critical time as bases nationwide jockey for survival.

The independent base closure commission reviewing Perry’s recommendations said this week that it will probably seek additional cost-cutting moves not on the Pentagon’s list. And Perry has said this fourth round of base closures may not be sufficient and that an additional round may be needed in the coming years to consolidate programs among the services and trim excess costs from the military.

“As Californians, we hope you will consider potential efficiencies that might occur from consolidating the Navy and Air Force test pilot schools at Edwards Air Force Base as you look for ways to reduce duplication of effort within department operations,” said the letter, signed by Thomas, McKeon and Reps. Randy Cunningham (R-San Diego) and Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands).

A spokesman for Thomas, Bill Pearce, called the letter “part of the continuing effort to attract new programs to Edwards.”

Largely free of residential encroachment, Edwards has superb geography and ready access to vast air, sea and land test ranges, supporters say. Its prestigious school trains 25 students per class in a session that lasts 10 months. Participants fly a variety of aircraft, including A-37, T-38, C-141 and F-16 planes.

It also has a legendary history. All three Apollo 11 moon-landing crew members were associated with Edwards, and Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier there. The flight test school was immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff.”

Despite being surrounded by suburban sprawl, Pax River has ready access to nearby water areas for flight, its backers argue. It also features helicopter training, not a part of Edwards’ training, and has a proud history of its own, having trained four of the original seven astronauts.

“We have a newer facility, we already train pilots for the Army, Navy and Marines, and we provide a much more realistic environment to properly train test pilots,” Maryland Rep. Hoyer said. “Furthermore, we have the vast expanse of airspace both over the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to test our pilots, whereas Edwards faces some major environmental considerations in terms of clean-air requirements if they gain additional testing operations.”

Such political jousting between Edwards and its rivals is nothing new.

Just last year, California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer urged the Pentagon to link Edwards and several other high-tech weapons-testing installations in a “Southwest Complex” that the senators said would save money, boost efficiency and promote cooperation.

Lawmakers representing competing bases in Florida, New York and Maryland dismissed the suggestion as a political ploy. They also criticized members of the California delegation for urging Perry to ignore a study that the East Coast politicians said recommended the closure of the air-combat test range at China Lake Weapons Station.

Edwards and Pax River have worked cooperatively in the past, with students in the Edwards school making trips to Pax River as part of their training. But there has always been an underlying rivalry.

Officials at both bases declined to comment on the dispute Wednesday, saying they wanted to stay out of the politicking. However, Edwards officials have acknowledged in the past that they are poised to take advantage of the ongoing downsizing in the armed forces.

“Edwards will inherit some other flight-test activities as other bases back East close,” Robert Johnstone, the base’s planning chief, said in an interview last year. “I think you’ll see testing gravitate toward the southwestern United States . . . and Edwards will be at the hub of those test ranges.”

Already, in the single largest addition to the base in decades, Edwards last year received the 4950th Test Wing, which has 950 employees and 26 aircraft, from Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.