Dover airfield to close for 6 days

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Those who live or work on or near Dover AFB are accustomed to the sights and sounds associated with an active airfield, especially one that has C-5M Super Galaxies and C-17A Globemaster IIIs regularly traversing its airspace. But for six days in late February, this will all come to a halt.

Dover AFB's airfield will temporarily close from Feb. 24 to March 1, 2016, to permit crews to remove and repaint airfield markings and reposition and adjust airfield lights which will allow Runway 14-32 to be shortened for operations during this phase of the ongoing Runway 01-19 construction project.  

"In order for the contractor to work on the intersection, we have to reconfigure a long runway into a shorter runway," said Lt. Col. Charles Throckmorton, 436th Operations Support Squadron director of operations.

Since February 2015, Dover AFB's north-south Runway 01-19 has been closed to undergo a complete renovation. The base's other runway, 14-32, is still fully operational. The construction project has reached the stage in which the intersection of both runways will be worked on. When this next phase of construction begins on the two runways' intersections, it will cut the length of runway 14-32 from 12,900 feet to 6,000 feet.

"The C-5s will relocate to [Joint Base] McGuire[-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey] and the C-17s will move off-station operations for the six days," said Throckmorton.

During this closure, the only aircraft that will remain at Dover AFB will be those here for maintenance.

"We've done a lot of homework with the base and Air Mobility Command," said Throckmorton. "We are doing everything we can to mitigate the risk."

This phase of construction is expected to last from March 1 to Aug. 1, 2016, leaving Dover with 6,000 feet of operational runway. This cut will limit the operations of Team Dover's C-5Ms at home station; however, they will continue to fly in and out of Dover AFB for heavy maintenance and in support of our 512 AW mission partner's local training requirements. The majority of Dover's fleet of C-5s will remain at McGuire continuing our world-wide mission while Dover's C-17s will remain here for operations.

"The C-17 was designed to be an intermediate strategic and tactical airlifter," said Lt. Col. Jason Mills, 3d Airlift Squadron commander. "It has long range capabilities, but a tactical capacity as well; it was designed to land on short fields."

One important mission that will continue during the six day closure is that of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations. The remains of all fallen U.S. service members return to the U.S. via AFMAO, which is located on Dover AFB. During this six day closure, a contingency has been prepared where all Dignified Transfers will take place at New Castle Air National Guard Base, New Castle, Delaware.