‘Splitting divert airfield between Saipan, Tinian among options’

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said the U.S. military has not decided yet on which CNMI island a U.S. Air Force divert airfield would be built, adding that “all the alternatives, including doing nothing and, perhaps, splitting the project between Tinian and Saipan, are still under consideration.”

This, after Sablan received on Jan. 23 a letter from U.S. Air Force Major General Thomas Bergeson.

CNMI officials are unified in their request to put the divert airfield on Tinian, where two-thirds of the island is already leased to the U.S. Department of Defense. DoD, however, wants it on Saipan.

The divert airfield is intended to be an alternative landing base for Air Force planes if Andersen Air Force Base in Guam becomes unavailable because of weather or war.

Sablan had written to the Secretary of the Air Force, “making the argument for putting all the divert airfield activities on Tinian, which our Covenant agreed to lease to the U.S. for military purposes of this kind.”

“Of course, there are people putting pressure on the Defense Department to locate some of the divert activities on Saipan—Guam Congresswoman Bordallo is making that argument—despite our Covenant,” he said.

In December, President Barack Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2014 that provides $29.3 million for the development of a U.S. Air Force divert airfield in the CNMI.

The new law prohibits the Air Force from spending any of the $29.3 million until it reports to Congress on all the alternatives that have been considered, the overall construction requirements, and the cost/benefits of options for the land needed.

So far, there is no such report, Sablan said. The delegate supported for inclusion in the NDAA the $29.3 million and the required report to Congress on all alternatives the Air Force considered.

Press secretary Angel Demapan, meanwhile, said Gov. Eloy S. Inos did not have any military-related meetings in Washington, D.C. “because there is no new update since Governor Inos was last briefed in Honolulu a month ago.”

At the invitation of the U.S. Pacific Command, Inos went to Honolulu weeks ago to receive mission briefs from key military officials from various components regarding the nation’s strategic rebalancing efforts in the Pacific region.

In those briefings, Air Force officials maintained that their preferred proposed site of Saipan is intended to serve as a divert location only and not as a training ground that will be active throughout the year. They said divert activities are not expected to exceed more than four weeks a year. But Inos had said the Air Force should make use of the property on Tinian already leased for military purposes and expressed disappointment with the lack of a cost-benefit analysis between Saipan and Tinian.

The governor earlier told the Air Force that its request to lease 33 acres of land on Saipan for the next 50 years for a proposed divert airfield “is quite an undesirable conclusion as it would impede future commercial development in the area.”