OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Far East District and the U.S. Air Force 36th Fighter Squadron, 51st Fighter Wing, broke ground on a new Operations and Aircraft Maintenance Unit Facility April 10 at Osan Air Base.
The operations and maintenance facility will allow the Squadron’s F-16 fighters to continue to carry out their mission to “prepare for and execute immediate air combat operations to dominate any aggressors threatening U.S. or Republic of Korea interests.”
“With today’s groundbreaking, we know that the new facility will become a significant U.S. Air Force operation asset for the Korean Peninsula peace keeping mission,” said Capt. Ryu Gyu-seok, Chief of U.S. Forces Korea Construction Management Team, ROK Ministry of National Defense-Defense Installations Agency.
The ROK funded construction project is a collaborative effort between MND-DIA, the U.S. Air Force, and FED.
“Today marks another milestone in our ROK-U.S commitment to our allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Col. Patrick McKenzie, 51st Fighter Wing Commander.
The 37,000 square-foot operations and maintenance facility will double the capacity of primary aircraft assigned and is expected to be completed in April 2014 at a cost of about $14.4 million. It will replace the current operations building and separate aircraft maintenance unit building with a combined facility that will provide seamless integration of services, some of which was not previously available at the older buildings.