LITTLE ROCK -- Arkansas Air National Guard officials confirmed Wednesday the state's Air Guard units would receive additional aircraft and money for a new facility under the Air Force's fiscal 2016 requests that are part of President Barack Obama's proposed budget.

The Air Force announced it would shift two additional C-130 H-model aircraft to the Air Guard's 189th Airlift Wing, housed at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, if the budget is approved. Also recommended in Air Force budget estimates is $15.2 million for construction of a 40,000-square-foot complex at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith.

The Air Force's proposal is a preliminary step in the budget process. The president's budget, which includes a defense budget of $534 billion, will next go before Congress.

Master Sgt. Christopher Durney, spokesman for the 189th Airlift Wing, said the proposed increase in aircraft would help the unit's mission.

The 189th trains Air National Guard, Reserve and active-duty air crews for the C-130H aircraft -- the older of the C-130 models in operation. It also qualifies instructors.

When it took over the training mission in 2013, the 189th saw increases in personnel and planes.

"Our training mission is pretty intense," Durney said. "Any help we can get is great."

The 189th has about a dozen C-130s. Since Oct. 1, 139 airmen have completed training with the 189th and another 55 airmen were going through the program as of Tuesday, Durney said.

While both Arkansas and New York units are set to receive more C-130H models, budget documents released last week show the Air Force seeks to retire 28 of th aircraft by 2019 and increase its fleet of the newer C-130J models. The Air Force proposes adding 14 J-models in 2016.

It hasn't been determined which locations will retire H-models.

188th Wing

The budget also proposes going ahead with construction of a complex in Fort Smith from which guardsmen could remotely pilot MQ-9 Reapers -- unmanned aircraft commonly known as drones.

Formerly the 188th Fighter Wing, the unit at Ebbing Air National Guard Base was re-designated in June as the 188th Wing and given an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission.

The 188th flew a series of different aircraft, most recently the A-10 Thunderbolt II, until it was stripped of its A-10s under the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. The Air Force budget for 2016 proposes retiring all of the nation's A-10s over four years and giving new missions to the remaining Air National Guard A-10 units.

Currently in the transition, the 188th is expected to be fully operational in its new mission in 2017. The start date hinges on construction of a Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility -- a building used to process classified information.

According to documents sent to Congress to justify the budget request, all current facilities on base have "inadequate" security measures. Operating the mission out of temporary facilities is "expensive and falls short of space, security and operational requirements," the documents state.

The 188th was told in 2013 it would receive $13.2 million for the facility. That was later increased by $2 million.

"We started design for the MILCON [military construction] project this last year," said Maj. Health Allen, executive officer for the 188th Wing, in an email. "During design we determined that the budget needed to be increased to cover requirements."

The Air Force proposal -- which would invest more into intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities -- includes distributing the $15.2 million in 2016.

Though the project must go through the budget process, Allen said it's "highly likely it will be coming our way."

A contract for construction of the Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility will be awarded sometime between October 2015 and October 2016, Allen said. Documents show construction is expected to start in March 2016 and be completed by July 2017.

"The timeline depends on when the budget is signed," Allen said.

19th Airlift Wing

The Air Force's approximately $122.2 billion budget request also calls for increases in personnel. Active-duty end strength would grow by 4,020 to 317,000, and reserve forces would increase by 2,600 airmen to 174,700.

It's not yet clear how the budget request or proposed personnel increases would affect the 19th Airlift Wing, the active-duty unit at Little Rock Air Force Base.

"We cannot speculate on changes outside of those from the president's budget announcement," base spokesman Arlo Taylor said.

In a presentation to the Senate Armed Services Committee in January, Gen. Mark Welsh III, Air Force chief of staff, said personnel would shrink by about 10,000 and other capabilities would be reduced if Congress didn't take action to stop automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

NW News on 02/12/2015