Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used her State of the State address Wednesday night to call on President Donald Trump's administration to back a new fighter mission for Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County, as the base soon loses its A-10 squadron to retirement.
The Democratic governor praised Republican and Democratic members of Congress from Michigan alike for working on trying to prevent the Macomb County base from closing.
"We’re all doing our part, but we need federal support," Whitmer said. "... Let’s support our brave men and women in uniform at Selfridge in our next budget and work with our federal partners to save Michigan jobs and protect our national security."
Whitmer's continued public push for keeping the base open comes as her 2026 fiscal year budget proposal request included another $26 million towards the project planned at Selfridge to realign the airport's runway to better accommodate advanced fighter aircraft.
The governor's office called the runway issue a "long-standing problem."
The second term Democratic governor delivered her seventh State of the State address Wednesday evening to the 110-member Michigan Legislature at the state Capitol.
Whitmer previously pledged $100 million in state money to infrastructure improvements at Selfridge to try to attract another fighter mission to the Harrison Township base. The state Legislature has put $28 million in funding into the runway project and other updates at the base in recent years.
On Sunday, Whitmer told The Detroit News that she spoke to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the weekend while at the White House, telling Hegseth about wanting the Pentagon to approve a new fighter mission for Selfridge. She also invited Hegseth to visit the base.
"He was interested to learn more, I'll put it that way," Whitmer said of Hegseth. "As they look to save resources, capitalizing National Guard bases actually is much more cost efficient, and that's another really important part of what we got to make sure people in this town understand."
Whitmer mentioned Hegseth during her speech Wednesday night and portrayed Selfridge as aligning with the Trump administration's priorities with keeping drugs from being smuggled into the country along the nation's northern border.
"The base supports thousands of local jobs and hundreds of military families. It’s home to some of the nation’s most elite pilots," she said. "They complete all kinds of missions, including protecting our border from drugs and crime."
In addition to the runway project, Selfridge is constructing a 41,600-square-foot hangar and maintenance facilities to accommodate larger fighter aircraft.
The state has been working through the pre-construction phases of design, environmental study and land acquisition for the runway project, using prior year funds appropriated by the Legislature, with construction expected to start in summer 2026, officials said.
"At Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan service members and their families step up every day to defend our communities and our country,” U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Rogers, adjutant general of the Michigan National Guard and director of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said in a statement.
“It’s up to us to support them and have their backs by investing in Selfridge’s infrastructure and winning a new next-generation fighter mission."
The intent of reconfiguring the runway is to shift it to the north, away from a "safety zone" of residential homes along the Clinton River south of the base, for which the Air Force has granted waivers over the years, said state Sen. Kevin Hertel, D- St. Clair Shores.
State officials suspect the safety zone conflict is part of the reason that Selfridge was passed over by the Air Force after competing for an international training center for the F-35 fighter aircraft.
Last year, then-secretary of the U.S. Air Force Frank Kendall said Selfridge would "potentially" be considered for a future fighter mission to replace the base's A-10 aircraft, "but at the current time we don't have an option to do that."
Kendall at the time noted the decision announced a year ago to base a new squadron of 12 KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers at the Selfridge base was in part because of the planned divestiture of the A-10 fighters. Selfridge also is home to eight aging KC-135 Stratotankers, which also are slated to be retired.
Kendall added that the next-generation crewless or unmanned "collaborative" aircraft (CCA) that the Air Force is acquiring is a possibility for Selfridge.
The Air Force in January 2024 said Selfridge is the "preferred location" to host a KC-46A squadron, pending the results of a planned environmental impact analysis this year. The KC-46As are projected to start arriving in 2029.
That retirement process would occur incrementally through 2029 and could result in the net loss of approximately 300 part-time personnel positions and about 25 full-time jobs, accounting for the KC-46A jobs that will be added, the Air Force said.
Bipartisan members of Congress from Michigan have said they continue to push defense officials for a follow-on fighter mission to replace the A-10s, but that depends on the availability of aircraft such as the F-35 or F-15EX.
The annual defense policy bill signed into law in December included a requirement that the U.S. Air Force provide a comprehensive plan for recapitalizing National Guard air wings.
The provision, secured by Sen. Gary Peters, D- Bloomfield Township, encourages the Air Force to plan for the replacement of the 25 Air National Guard fighter aircraft squadrons across the country with advanced fighter aircraft, including the A-10s at Selfridge.
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