Maryland will not be getting a squadron of fighter jets from the D.C. Air National Guard after all, a White House official said Friday — marking the apparent end of the road for the state’s pursuit of the elite flying mission that was part of a pact last year involving D.C. and RFK Stadium.

“The F-16s will stay with the DC ANG,” the official said in a statement to The Washington Post. “The Trump Administration will continue to prioritize readiness and Warfighting to achieve Peace through Strength for the United States.”

The administration’s decision to abandon plans to move D.C.’s elite fighter jet squadron to Maryland comes months after the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Wes Moore (D) worked to secure the planes to prevent the state from losing its flying mission. Maryland will be the only state in the U.S. without a flying mission after the Maryland Air National Guard gets rid of its existing squadron of jets later this year, with plans to form a new squadron with on-the-ground cyber responsibilities.

In the months since the RFK deal was settled, the political environment has shifted. Former senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), who aggressively pushed for the F-16s to come to Maryland, retired; Joe Biden left office; and Donald Trump entered the White House and took control of the D.C. National Guard.

This month, as it became increasingly clear that the state would not receive the F-16 jets, the Maryland Congressional Delegation sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urging him to pause decommissioning the state’s 21 A-10 Thunderbolt II jets. The first A-10 was sent last week to the boneyard in Arizona, where divested aircraft go to be stored and prepped for display.

“The previous Administration failed to provide for a follow-on flying mission for the Maryland Air National Guard (MDANG) to support our national needs and did not finalize the establishment of a more robust cyber wing,” said the letter, which was signed by every member of the delegation including Rep. Andy Harris, the lone Republican, who serves as chair of the Freedom Caucus. “We ask that you work with us to address these urgent matters.”

The governor’s office declined to comment Friday on the decision to keep the F-16 jets with the D.C. Air National Guard, but said that the governor is working closely with other Maryland officials to prevent the state from losing its flying mission. NBC4 earlier reported Thursday there had been no movement on the jet transfer and it appeared scrapped.

“The Moore-Miller Administration is actively working with our congressional Delegation and the new Administration in Washington to have a long-term flying mission for the Maryland Air National Guard — in addition to the work the State of Maryland is undertaking for the creation of a cyber wing,” Moore spokesman Carter Elliot IV said in a statement.

Harris’s office shared that goal in a statement, saying: “We will continue to work toward a solution to ensure Maryland Air National Guard maintains a fighter force.”

Maryland officials and former Guard leaders argued that a flying mission brings more to the state than jets.

Retired Brig. Gen. Ed Jones, who served 38 years and was the former commander of the Maryland Air National Guard, said that the loss of the F-16s and the eventual loss of the state’s flying mission threatens hundreds of jobs in Maryland — from pilots to maintenance workers and other support staff who keep the state’s A-10s flying.

“All that experience,” he said, “it just goes away.”

Maryland aggressively sought to poach the D.C. fighter jets to become the state’s new flying mission last year — a push that ended up becoming intertwined in congressional negotiations over D.C. officials’ own major priority: its pursuit of RFK Stadium.

The two completely unrelated assets — the jets and the defunct stadium property — were never intended to be linked, Maryland leaders frequently stressed last year during the negotiations. But they did become connected during negotiations over major congressional packages as the year drew to a close, and as Maryland and D.C. officials each lobbied hard for their priorities.

D.C. wanted Congress to pass a bipartisan bill giving the District control of the RFK federal property. Maryland wanted Congress to pass legislation giving the state D.C.’s National Guard fighter jets — and had long decried the RFK Stadium legislation as unfair to Maryland. State officials did not want the Washington Commanders to leave Northwest Stadium in Landover for a newly available riverfront property in D.C., at RFK, that the city would acquire at no cost, making its bid for the football team easier.

In the end, on the very last night of the congressional session, Maryland got assurances from Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall that the D.C. fighter jet mission would be transferred to Maryland, multiple people familiar with the negotiations told The Post at the time. It was a key development that gave Maryland senators the satisfaction they were looking for before dropping their objections to the RFK legislation.

Hours later, the Senate passed the RFK bill by unanimous consent.

Days later, the Air Force publicly confirmed the jets would be transferred to Maryland.

Yet the pursuit was not over for Maryland. The appearances of a “stadium for jets” trade that Maryland leaders had insisted was not the intent of the negotiations — and the seemingly rushed process for deciding the fate of a critical military asset — rankled both current and former members of the D.C. National Guard.

Maj. Gen. John C. Andonie, commanding general of the D.C. guard, warned in a letter to Kendall that the transfer of the elite flying mission could create unnecessary risks and that it also “bypassed” the normal decision-making process for transferring military assets.

Seventeen retired D.C. generals warned in a letter to Congress of national security risks of turning over the fighter jets to Maryland, whose pilots are not trained to fly F-16s, and of readiness challenges in one of the most strategic airspaces in the nation. The fighter jets are scrambled by NORAD to intercept any aircraft that infringes on the protected airspace, which includes the White House and other sensitive areas.

The generals said in the letter that they feared that the decision to transfer the fighter jets to Maryland came after a “highly irregular” process that was tainted by politics, and they noted that a critical step was missing: Andonie never gave his approval, despite a federal law the generals cited noting his sign-off was needed.

Retired Maj. Gen. George M. Degnon, one of the 17 signatories in the letter to Congress, said in an interview Friday evening that while he was glad the D.C. jets were staying put, it felt like a “hollow victory.” It was a shame, he said, that Maryland was losing its flying mission without any replacement, and losing the human capital and talent among the Maryland pilots who for now “don’t have a home anymore.”

“It’s a small victory for D.C. National Guard,” he said, “but it’s a loss for the Air Force at large that they’re not recapitalizing these units going away.”

Erin Cox contributed to this report.

previous coverage

• Retired generals warn against giving D.C.’s fighter jets to Maryland
• Maryland lands DC fighter jets in football stadium deal