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According to a draft plan, the U.S. Army wants to take possession of four dozen Apache helicopters from a number of National Guard bases, and Utah would be one of the first states to lose its fleet.
Maj. Gen. Jeff Burton has been fighting the Army's plan for almost a year, but the dispute intensified when Burton saw the draft, which has not been publicly released. Utah's congressional delegation is opposed to the transfer, too.
Burton said the loss of the Apache helicopters — two-seat aircraft designed to destroy enemy targets on the ground — would cost Utah jobs and waste money the Army has already spent training pilots.
"It's very clear the state militia was designed to be a combat reserve of the Army, and that means we should look like the Army," Burton said in an interview Thursday.
Sen. Mike Lee's office issued a statement Friday saying he has spoken to the chief of the National Guard Bureau about the helicopters. Lee favors cuts in other federal programs rather than in defense.
"Senator Lee is greatly disappointed that the Army feels the need to propose such measures effecting the National Guard due to sequestration of the Department of Defense," the statement said.
Burton confirmed he saw a draft document that calls for the Army to remove Apache helicopters first from the Tennessee National Guard, then from Utah and Missouri. Burton said the document is a draft and has not been approved for public release. The Army did not even want to share it with him on a recent trip to Washington, D.C. to discuss the helicopters.
"We have friends that gave us a copy," Burton said.
In an email sent Friday, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Don Peters wrote: "At this time, I can tell you that there has been no decision on a timeline."
Burton assumes the Army covets the 16 Apaches at the Utah National Guard's 1st Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment because they are the newest model. Nationwide, there are eight National Guard battalions with Apaches. Most have older versions.
The draft Burton saw references language currently in the Senate version of the National Defense Reauthorization Act. It would allow the Army to take 48 Apaches in fall 2015 and require a study to examine what to do with other National Guard Apaches.
The Army is phasing out another helicopter, called the Kiowa, that performed scouting missions. The Army wants Apaches to fill that role.
Burton and other critics of the plan argue the Apache is too valuable an aircraft — each costs about $35 million — and too big, loud and well-armed to use for low-altitude, dangerous reconnaissance missions.
"It's like using a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead," Burton said.
The move also would cost Utah jobs, the major general said. The Utah National Guard has about 200 people employed full-time maintaining the Apaches.
The Army would send Utah some Blackhawk helicopters in exchange. Burton doesn't know how many. But the Blackhawks are used for transporting people and cargo and require half as many people to maintain them, Burton said.
Burton also pointed to data showing it costs the Army $76.8 million a year to run a 16-Apache battalion while a National Guard can operate such a battalion for $31.8 million a year.
Chief Warrant Officer Jared Jones, a 34-year-old Apache pilot with the Utah National Guard who has been deployed to Afghanistan twice, said he's not sure what would happen to him if the Apaches leave Utah. The Army would probably retrain him for another job, but probably not in aviation.
"When you think of the millions of dollars they put into training aviators, it seems like a huge waste of money," Jones said.
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