Staff Reports
Northeast Florida lawmakers continue to make their push for bringing F-35 jets to Jacksonville, reports the Jacksonville Business Journal.
The laudatory comments about the fighter jets, which would be housed at the National Guard hangar at the Jacksonville International Airport, were made in the Florida Senate’s Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security Committee.
Chairwoman Audrey Gibson, a Jacksonville Democrat, declaimed that “I’m excited about the possibilities and I certainly want my pilots in planes that actually function and something doesn’t break down midway to where they are going,”
That last reference? To the aging F-15 jets currently in use.
The support for F-35 upgrades was bipartisan, with Clay County Republican Rob Bradley joining his Democratic colleague from Jacksonville in support.
“I think everybody has come to a real understanding of how important this would be to our area if we were to gain these assets,” Bradley, a Clay County Republican, said.
With worries about the BRAC process never far from the minds of military-minded Northeast Florida legislators, virtually all are in support of bringing the F-35’s to Jacksonville.
However, that federal decision is not imminent.
