FRESNO, Calif. — The grounding of hundreds of F-15s because of dangerous structural defects is straining the nation’s air defense network, forcing states such as Washington and Oregon to rely on their neighbors’ fighter jets for protection, and Alaska to depend on the Canadian military.
The Boeing F-15 is the sole fighter at many of the 16 or so “alert” sites around the country, where planes and pilots stand ready to take off at a moment’s notice to intercept hijacked airliners, Cessnas that wander into protected airspace, and other threats.
The Air Force grounded about 450 F-15s after one of the fighters began to break apart in the air and crashed Nov. 2 in Missouri. An Air Force investigation found “possible fleetwide airworthiness problems” because of defects in the metal rails that hold the fuselage together.
Compounding the problem created by the grounding, another fighter jet used for homeland defense, the F-16, is in high demand for Iraq operations. And the next-generation fighter, the F-22 Raptor, is only slowly replacing the aging F-15.
Military officials say they moved quickly to patch any holes in the homeland air-defense system, and they report an increase in air defense sorties in the past month, using replacement F-16s. But they acknowledge difficulties.
“When you’re filling in, obviously it’s going to cause some strain,” said Mike Strickler, a spokesman with North American Aerospace Defense Command, which is operated by the U.S. and Canada. “You’re spreading resources a little thinner than we would like.”
But air defenses have not been compromised, Strickler said. “We can be anywhere at any time,” he said.
The Minnesota Air National Guard is manning sites in Hawaii. In Louisiana, the Illinois Air National Guard has been filling in.
And with Oregon’s fighters grounded, the California Air National Guard is standing watch for the entire West Coast, an area of more than 300,000 square miles that is home to more than 46 million people in Washington, Oregon, California and slices of Arizona and Nevada.
For three weeks in November, Canadian CF-18s filled in for the F-15s over Alaska.
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