When Will Pease ANG Get New Tankers?

For several months, members of the New Hampshire Congressional Delegation have been working hard to have some of the Air Force's new KC-46A air tankers deployed at Pease Air National Guard Base.

On Thursday morning, U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-NH, is scheduled to tour the Newington base with Air Force officials before she meets with members of the media with Brig. Gen. Carol Protzmann, commander of the New Hampshire Air National Guard, to talk about why Pease should be selected for the new aircraft.

On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, also discussed the efforts that she and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, have made to give the New Hampshire Air National Guard's 157th Air Refueling Wing some of the new aircraft to replace their aging fleet of KC-135 air tankers.

A Site Activation Task Force visited Pease Air National Guard Base in February and is expected to announce a decision on which two bases will get the tankers on May 1. If Pease is selected, it would get 12 of the tankers in 2017.

Other bases being considered are Rickenbacker in Ohio, McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Forbes in Kansas and the Pittsburgh Air National Guard Station in Pennsylvania.

Pease Development Authority officials and the Portsmouth City Council have also endorsed the effort to land the new tankers at Pease.

What follows is a video of Ayotte's assessment on where the effort to help Pease land some of the new KC-46A tankers stands.