Navy Plane Squadron to Move to Point Mugu

The Navy will relocate a fleet of transport planes here this summer, bringing 450 jobs to the Point Mugu Naval Air Station and bolstering the facility’s chances of surviving another round of base closures.

The secretary of the Navy announced Thursday that the Fleet Logistics Support squadron Five Five will be transferred from the Naval Air Reserve Center in Santa Clara, near San Jose, by the end of July.

The squadron is a reserve unit of five C-130 Hercules aircraft, maintenance crews and support personnel. A mobile maintenance facility, a maritime patrol mobile command center and a P-3 trainer also will be transferred to the station.

In all, about 200 active duty personnel, 250 reservists and about 600 of their family members will move to Ventura County.

“We’re excited about the additional commitment for Point Mugu,” said Capt. Stephen Beal, the air station’s commanding officer. “With downsizing a major factor, we continue to look for ways to fill the void.”

The Clinton administration announced earlier this month that the president would propose another round of closures in 2001 and 2003 with the goal of cutting base costs by about 10%. Shutting bases will help pay for weapons modernization and a military readiness program, according to the White House.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said the county should work hard to protect Point Mugu from the next round of cuts. In 1995, Gallegly and other local elected officials succeeded in getting the base off of a closure list, after aggressive lobbying.

He said the new aircraft will help shield Mugu when the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, or BRAC, starts looking for underused bases to shut down. He said the more missions and employees a base has, the less likely it will be targeted by the commission.

“Not only is it important that there will be hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars coming into Ventura County, it also further solidifies and helps mitigate the possibility of Mugu being closed,” Gallegly said.

Point Mugu, which has a working population of about 11,000 and an annual budget of about $1.6 million, serves primarily as a missile test site.

In 1998, officials at the base took two major steps to make the base more efficient and productive.

In July, the Navy began transferring a squadron of 16 E-2C Hawkeye radar planes to Point Mugu from San Diego’s Miramar Naval Air Station. The transfer, which will be completed this spring, will bring nearly 1,000 military personnel and 1,500 family members to the base.

The E-2C planes, which can detect missiles up to 300 miles away, were initially scheduled to move to the Lemoore Naval Air Station in the Central Valley. But the Navy decided on Point Mugu after a campaign by local political and community leaders.

And in October, the air station consolidated with the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme, in an attempt to cut costs and increase efficiency. The facilities merged their public works, police, fire and recreation departments.

Point Mugu spokeswoman Cora Fields said the base has been negotiating with the Navy to get the C-130 Hercules aircraft for about a year.

Fields said the transfer could save the Navy up to $20 million over five years. She said the Navy wanted to find a new home for the aircraft because of the higher cost of living in the Bay Area.

The C-130 Hercules aircraft are primarily transport planes and will help the base improve and speed up mobilization efforts. The P-3 trainer, known as the Orion, is a surveillance craft.

The mobile maintenance facility is used to provide support for the P-3. Its main purpose is for rapid deployment, or operation for up to 90 days without supply lines of communication.

And the primary mission of the Fleet Maritime Patrol Mobile Operational Command Center is to support the P-3 with computerized communications, including flight safety information.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) credits the Navy leaders and personnel for making Point Mugu such an effective base.

Sherman, whose district includes parts of eastern Ventura County, said he will continue to lobby to bring more business to the Navy in Ventura County.

“You fight these battles one mission at a time,” Sherman said. “Five C-130 aircraft is an enormous mission. It’s not whether the base is open or closed. It’s also whether the base is growing or shrinking, and Point Mugu is definitely growing.”