Democrats and Republicans don’t agree about much in election season.
But Georgia’s congressional delegation joined forces Friday to push for a new mission for Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Cobb County.
All 16 Georgians in the U.S. House and Senate – eight Republicans and six Democrats – signed a letter urging Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall to make Dobbins the future site of upgraded C-130J aircraft.
Dobbins currently houses one of the Air Force’s four C-130H Reserve units. The older C-130H aircraft are slated to be replaced by more modern C-130Js to fly global logistical support missions.
TOO MANY ADS? GO AD-FREE
Did You Know?: The ads you see on this site help pay for our website and our work. However, we know some of our readers would rather pay and not see ads. For those users we offer a paid newsletter that contains our articles with no ads.
What You Get: A daily email digest of our articles in full-text with no ads.
The letter cites Dobbins’ long history as a regional landmark and jobs center as well as its proximity to the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which conducts more than $700 million of research annually for government and private industry.
The base also is adjacent to Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of a variety of military aircraft including the B-47 Stratojet, C-141 Starlifter, C-5 Galaxy, F-22, F-35, and the C-130 Hercules, a four-engine military transport plane.
“There is no place else in America with closer ties, both operational and industrial, to the historic and indispensable C-130 and all its variants than the Marietta and North Atlanta community,” the Georgia lawmakers argued.
The Air National Guard received the first of eight C-130Js last November to modernize its transport capabilities.
The C-130H models have been operational since 1992. The last aircraft was retired in September of last year.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
The form you have selected does not exist.