A Washington D.C., Air National Guard F-16 Fighting returns from a training mission April 3, 2012, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. The D.C. ANG provides air sovereignty forces to defend the nation's capital, and also provides fighter, airlift and support forces capable of local, national and global employment. (Staff Sgt. Perry Aston/Air Force)
Seventeen former D.C. National Guard generals and other brass warned Congress this week against giving Maryland control of D.C.’s elite fighter jet squadron, raising concerns about potential national security impacts to the nation’s capital and about what they called the rushed nature of the move.
Control of D.C.’s fighter squadron was a long-sought prize for Maryland, but the retired generals’ letter questions whether it should happen, saying the transfer deserves greater scrutiny from Congress considering the importance of the jets.
“Given the unique and strategic mission of the [D.C. National Guard], we have grave concerns and questions about this hasty transfer increasing risk to the security of our national capital region and her residents without offsetting benefit,” the retired military brass wrote to the four top Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the Senate and House Armed Services committees in Congress, in a letter dated Tuesday.
Maryland had for months sought D.C.’s 121st Fighter Squadron - which has the critical mission of protecting the capital region’s airspace - after the state became set to lose its own flying mission. The state got the jets as part of congressional negotiations over an unrelated RFK Stadium bill benefiting D.C.
The retired generals warned that allowing a homeland security matter to become “improperly mingled with unrelated issues” could set a bad precedent, raising questions about how the decision was rendered since Congress was not formally notified and the current commanding general of the D.C. National Guard did not give approval. They expressed concerns that a transition period - the details of which are for now unclear - could cause unnecessary readiness challenges since Maryland’s flying unit is not trained to fly F-16 fighter jets “and could leave vulnerable security gaps in the skies over the nation’s capital.”
“This is not a one-for-one exchange and could be costly - wasting time, money and compromising national security,” they wrote, urging Congress to pause and thoroughly vet the move.
The interim commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. John C. Andonie, also does not appear to support giving Maryland the jets. He said it “unnecessarily violates the unity of command” in a separate Monday letter to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who green-lit the transfer of the jets last month, according to three people familiar with his communication with Maryland officials.
Arthur Wright, a spokesman for the D.C. National Guard, declined to comment other than to note the Air Force agreed to the transfer, referring all questions to it.
A spokeswoman for the Air Force did not respond to the concerns raised in the letters and referred to a previous statement noting the details of the transfer still have to be worked out.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), who is the commander in chief of his state’s National Guard and a former Army captain, said he appreciated the retired military officials’ service and their opinions - but said, “I just don’t agree,” claiming the move would “enhance” national security.
“It wasn’t horse trading,” he said. “It was what was in the best interest of national security. You know, when you think about having an asset like the 121st - which is joining a very qualified and competent and celebrated Air Guard unit like the one that we have within Maryland - this really is strength on strength.”
D.C.’s 121st Fighter Squadron is a highly specialized unit whose pilots must scramble to intercept planes that infringe on the District’s protected airspace at any time of day or night, a responsibility they carried out over 200 times last year and 7,690 times since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the retired generals note.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) scrambles the airplanes if there are threats to the capital’s airspace, which is not expected to change if Maryland controls the jets, which are already based in Maryland at Joint Base Andrews. In congressional negotiations, the fighter squadron became part of a pact involving D.C., Maryland and federal officials over legislation that would give D.C. control of RFK Stadium on federal land. The jets were one of several requests Maryland leaders had before they dropped their objections to the RFK bill, which could open the door to Maryland losing the Washington Commanders to D.C.
Retired Maj. Gen. George M. Degnon, one of the 17 signatories and who advocated for the group of retired military to speak up, said that he has found the whole situation “baffling.” The logistics of changing which jurisdiction controls a valuable military asset involved in homeland security are not simple, he said, and defense officials have not explained how it will work. If the changeover requires training or new pilots, it could take years, he said.
The Air National Guard members also help respond on the ground to national security events or natural disasters, and reducing the size of the D.C. National Guard could in turn reduce the guard’s staffing in those events, Degnon and his colleagues warned.
“There’s no military gain. There’s only, I would say, downsides to this,” Degnon said in an interview. “It’s a total political decision. It really sets a bad precedent, where a state is looking at losing a mission and they start stealing, if you will, from another state.”
As The Washington Post previously reported, hours before the RFK bill passed, Maryland’s senators at the time, Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, called Kendall to ensure that the transfer of the fighter jets could move forward, which the Air Force secretary confirmed. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) joined the conference call and did not object to the move.
Unlike governors, Bowser does not control the D.C. National Guard and has no formal role in directing its military assets. Instead, D.C.’s National Guard is controlled by the president, who delegates that day-to-day authority to top federal defense officials. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether President Joe Biden approved or supports the transfer of the fighter squad.
The generals, however, say that one critical step was missing in this “highly irregular” process: Andonie, the D.C. National Guard interim commanding general, never gave his approval for the transfer of the fighter jets. The generals cited a federal law that says his sign-off is needed. It’s unclear whether top defense officials can bypass him or whether this complicates the transfer.
In his Monday letter to Kendall, Andonie raised several concerns, including that the move would create unnecessary risk and that the decision “bypassed” the normal decision-making process. Ideally, he wrote, a major change like this would be given “due deliberation” to “minimize unintended consequences.”
“If the proposal had been staffed through Headquarters, Air Force and the Air National Guard, I would have had an opportunity to provide comprehensive feedback and a risk assessment to properly advise you and provide alternative courses of action,” Andonie wrote.
Andonie said it would create a situation in which Maryland pilots that do not report under his command would be working within a D.C. mission, in which all the support staff that operate alongside the jets would still be D.C. Guard members. “This relationship adds complexity to the mission and may result in accumulation of risk,” he wrote.
He added that he also could not “compel” D.C. Air Guard pilots to transfer to the Maryland National Guard and that their transfer would have to be voluntary. He suggested there is doubt they would be enthusiastic to move to Maryland control. “These Airmen take great pride in being Capital Guardians and in their essential role in the Aerospace Control Alert, a mission which has been executed by the [D.C. National Guard] since the attacks on 9/11,” Andonie wrote.
Andonie said he will continue to follow Kendall’s directions. It’s unclear what impact the letter raising concerns about the move could have.
Spokespeople for Bowser, who said last month she didn’t see any “practical impact” from the transfer, didn’t comment in response to the retired generals’ concerns.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Maryland), who last year had joined Cardin and Van Hollen in calling for the transfer of the F-16 squadron, said that the loss of Maryland’s A-10 flying mission - which is being turned into a cybersecurity mission - is a blow to the state, motivating lawmakers to work to get a flying unit back. Moore added that there is an economic benefit to having Marylanders pilot the fighter jets: jobs.
“There’s great concern about our loss, the loss that would impact Maryland,” Hoyer said. “I know the head of our National Guard - she was very concerned about that and talked to all of us about that. So we were we were working very hard to get this back.”
He said he could not comment on the generals’ national security concerns because he had not seen the letter. He did not comment further after The Post shared the letter.
A spokeswoman for Van Hollen noted the primary mission of the squadron will not change and said, “We are confident any concerns can be resolved.”
Retired Maj. Gen. Sherrie McCandless, who flew F-16s and retired last year as the head of D.C.’s National Guard, said that she was willing to hear out Maryland’s case and vision for the transition - but so far, “in my professional view, I don’t see a way to spin the Rubik’s Cube to make this seamless,” she said. “I just haven’t heard a cogent argument” that explains the national security benefit of the move.
Further, she said a changeover could require new training or recruiting in the transition period, which she said could be unnecessary costs for taxpayers while creating a likely readiness issue. “We just want to be careful and certain that we don’t have loss of readiness, an increase in cost, and that unintended consequences are avoided,” she said.
Spokespeople for the House and Senate Armed Services committees, which have oversight of the military, said they were reviewing the letter.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting delegate in the House, wrote to Kendall in April 2024 to oppose Maryland’s pursuit of the fighter jets, citing similar concerns raised by the generals. Norton, who was the lead co-sponsor of the RFK bill, said in December that Maryland’s continued pursuit concerned her. On Wednesday, she declined to comment.
