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The 150th Fighter Wing has been reassigned by the Pentagon to a new mission with the 58th Special Operations Unit
The New Mexico Air National Guard unit, called the “Tacos” since the late 1940s, has known it was losing all 21 of its F-16s since April. Now, they’ll inherit a fleet of 60 aircraft, including four CV-22 Ospreys and helicopters, that the governor could dispatch to state emergencies or on rescue missions.
On Thursday, they learned about their new role with the 58th Special Operations Unit, and that they will remain stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
The 58th trains about 2,200 troops a year in combat search and rescue, and employs more than 1,800 people. The Department of Defense’s decision to move the Tacos to the unit could accelerate the retirement of the F-16s, but will likely save 1,092 jobs, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
A third of those are full-time guardsmen.
The unit is led by Major General Kenny Montoya, who was not immediately available for comment on the new mission.
The state’s congressional delegation, led by Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., had made finding a new mission for the Tacos — officially the 150th Fighter Wing — one of their top priorities since April.
On Thursday, Heinrich issued told reporters that challenges lay ahead.
“My goal was to try to keep them flying so that in the future they can get back into fighter aircraft,” Heinrich said. “But there’s still going to be a lot of challenges moving forward, because what the 150th does now is very different from what the special operations wing does. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
The Tacos had hoped to get a new fighter jet mission, but earlier this year, the Pentagon, decided to reduce the number of F-22 Raptors it was purchasing and speed up the retirement of the wing’s F-16s.