(Tribune News Service) — Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station is expecting some new additions to help improve efficiency for the 914th Air Refueling Wing.

Currently, a new piping system is being installed underneath tarmac where KC-135 stratotanker aircraft can fuel up faster without the need for fuel trucks. The hydrant fuel lines will have six spots for aircraft to all get filled up at once.

Contractors from Mark Cerrone Inc. have been at work on the project since last summer, also replacing lines at the petroleum, oil and lubricants yard before replacing and installing new pipes this summer. They plan to complete the project by next summer.

The piping system will be used by 914th aircraft only, as the 107th Attack Wing does not have any aircraft stationed at the base. KC-135s are able to carry up 33,000 gallons of fuel, with the trucks used to fuel them able to carry 6,000 gallons each.

Col. Tom McElhinney, vice wing commander for the 914th, said the fuel trucks have to refuel at fueling yards before they can fill up the aircraft. One truck cannot fill up an aircraft in one sitting.

"Some of our missions that we have are gonna have to be, 'We got to refuel our planes as quickly as possible because somebody needs gas fast,'" McElhinney said. So this helps us with that.

The KC-135's main mission is to refuel other aircraft while in the air, whether for homeland defense or for missions in other parts of the world.

Further down the line, the base is also planning on a combined alert facility that the 914th and 107th can both use and extending the runway for military aircraft use.

Col. Joseph Contino, the new commander of the 914th, said that when the unit converted to using KC-135s in 2017, it came with a new mission of supporting airborne command or bomber posts during any sort of nuclear crisis or deterrence. The runway's need to be extended depends on missions they are given and how much fuel they would have to carry.

An air alert facility is a living quarters for aircrew on standby in the event of a deterrence emergency as part of the nuclear mission. The current alert facility is a converted firehouse on Kung Street, with the new facility planned to be next to it. Contino said the current facility dates back to the 1950s and is in poor condition.

When complete, the new facility would allow the 328 Air Refueling Squadron, 914 Operational Support Squadron, and 914 Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron to mobilize in one place rather than meet up from separate buildings.

The runway used for take off and landing is 10,600 feet long, though an unusable overrun is 1,200 feet long, brining the usable amount down to 9,400 feet. McElhinney said the length of the runway corresponds to how much gas the tankers can carry, with a longer one allowing for more fuel.

"Every foot that that runway is longer is extra gas that we can put in, because the heavier an airplane is, the longer the runway it takes to take off," McElhinney said.

The 914th is not full certified for its nuclear mission yet. A certification test will take place this November where the unit is challenged with an operational readiness inspection.

Despite this mission existing to react to nuclear weapon usage, Contino is not worried about that possibility happening, as this infrastructure is meant to be a deterrent, to show the Air Force is able to support the nuclear triad.

The combined operations and alert facility is planned to break ground in the next fiscal year, with construction taking a year and a half for an October 2025 completion. The officers hope to have runway design money in 2026.

The cost of these projects will not be known until design work is completed, though McElhinney estimates the total cost to be in the tens of millions. These would be federally funded.

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