Defense Budget Includes $100 Million For Pennsylvania National Guard
The Pennsylvania National Guard has announced that it will receive $100 million from the Department of Defense (DOD), including $97.5 million for priority projects.
The projects approved for funding include:
– $87 million for a new EC-130J for the Pennsylvania Air Guard’s 193rd Special Operations Wing based at Harrisburg International Airport;
– $6.8 million to fund the National Counterdrug Training Center at Fort Indiantown Gap, of which $2 million is for a new counter-terrorism program;
– $7.7 million to construct an addition to the 171st Air Refueling Wing’s squadron operations building at Pittsburgh International Airport;
– $2.3 million for the Air National Guard to construct a new base entry at Fort Indiantown Gap;
– $1.7 million to finish construction at the armory in Connellsville, Fayette County;
– $1.4 million to design a multi-purpose training range at Fort Indiantown Gap.
The 193rd Special Operations Wing flies, maintains and supports the world’s only EC-130 “Commando Solo” aircraft, used for information operations broadcasts via radio and television frequencies. This new aircraft is the sixth to be funded out of eight new aircraft earmarked for the unit. The 193rd is the most deployed unit in the Air Guard.
The Northeast Counterdrug Training Center will house Fort Indiantown Gap’s very own counter-terrorism school, providing law enforcement officers with the latest training in financial investigations, terrorism in public schools and hostage rescue.
The remaining $4.8 million dollars of the $6.8 million allocated to the National Counterdrug Training Center will be used to continue drug-eradication programs and to provide education to the state’s law-enforcement officers. Currently, the center educates more than 4,000 students a year.
Another $1.4 million was allocated to design a new multi-purpose firing range at Fort Indiantown Gap, to be used to help consolidate the Pennsylvania National Guard’s training program at Fort Indiantown Gap.
Currently, the Pennsylvania National Guard is the most deployed Guard in the nation, with some 3,000 Guard men and women serving in the war against terrorism.
