Michigan Governor – Gretchen Whitmer used her State of the State address Wednesday night to urge President Donald Trump’s administration to support a new fighter mission for Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County, which will soon lose its A-10 squadron to retirement.
The Democratic governor praised both Republican and Democratic members of Congress from Michigan for their efforts to keep the Macomb County base operational.
“We’re all doing our part, but we need federal support,” Whitmer stated. “… Let’s support our brave men and women in uniform at Selfridge in our next budget and work with our federal partners to save Michigan jobs and protect our national security.”
Whitmer’s continued public push to keep the base open comes as her 2026 fiscal year budget proposal request includes an additional $26 million for a project at Selfridge to realign the airport’s runway to accommodate advanced fighter aircraft.
The governor’s office described the runway issue as a “long-standing problem.”
The second-term Democratic governor delivered her seventh State of the State address to the Michigan Legislature’s 110 members on Wednesday evening at the state Capitol.
Whitmer previously pledged $100 million in state funding for infrastructure improvements at Selfridge in an effort to attract another fighter mission to the Harrison Township base. In recent years, the state Legislature has invested $28 million in the base’s runway project and other improvements.
Whitmer told The Detroit News on Sunday that she spoke with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the weekend at the White House, telling him that she wanted the Pentagon to approve a new fighter mission for Selfridge. She also invited Hegseth to see the base.
Whitmer described Hegseth as “interested in learning more.” “As they look to save resources, capitalizing National Guard bases actually is much more cost efficient, and that’s another really important part of what we got to make sure people in this town understand.”
Whitmer mentioned Hegseth in her speech Wednesday night, portraying Selfridge as supporting the Trump administration’s priorities of preventing drugs from being smuggled into the country through the country’s northern border.
“The base provides thousands of local jobs and houses hundreds of military families. “It is home to some of the country’s most elite pilots,” she explained. “They complete all kinds of missions, including protecting our border from drugs and crime.”
In addition to the runway project, Selfridge is building a 41,600-square-foot hangar and maintenance facilities to house larger fighter aircraft.
The state has been working through the pre-construction phases of design, environmental study, and land acquisition for the runway project, using prior year funds appropriated by the Legislature, with construction set to begin in the summer of 2026, officials stated.
“At Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan service members and their families step up every day to defend our communities and our country,” U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Rogers, adjutant general of the Michigan National Guard and director of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said in a statement.
“It’s up to us to support them and have their backs by investing in Selfridge’s infrastructure and winning a new next-generation fighter mission.”
The intention of reconfiguring the runway is to shift it to the north, away from a “safety zone” of residential homes along the Clinton River south of the base, for which the Air Force has granted waivers in the past, said state Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-St. Clair Shores.
State officials believe the safety zone conflict is one of the reasons Selfridge was passed over by the Air Force when competing for an international training center for the F-35 fighter aircraft.
Last year, then-secretary of the US Air Force Frank Kendall stated that Selfridge would “potentially” be considered for a future fighter mission to replace the base’s A-10 aircraft, “but at the moment we don’t have an option to do so.”
Kendall noted at the time that the decision to base a new squadron of 12 KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers at Selfridge was due in part to the planned divestiture of the A-10 fighters. Selfridge also houses eight aging KC-135 Stratotankers, which are also set to be retired.
Kendall also mentioned the next-generation crewless or unmanned “collaborative” aircraft (CCA) that the Air Force is acquiring as a possibility for Selfridge.
In January 2024, the Air Force announced that Selfridge is the “preferred location” for a KC-46A squadron, pending the results of an environmental impact analysis scheduled for this year. The KC-46As are expected to begin arriving in 2029.
That retirement process would occur incrementally through 2029 and could result in the net loss of approximately 300 part-time personnel positions and about 25 full-time jobs, accounting for the KC-46A jobs that will be added, the Air Force said.
Bipartisan members of Congress from Michigan have stated that they continue to press defense officials for a follow-on fighter mission to replace the A-10s, but this is contingent on the availability of aircraft such as the F-35 or F-15EX.
The annual defense policy bill, signed into law in December, required the US Air Force to provide a comprehensive plan for recapitalizing National Guard air wings.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, secured the provision, which encourages the Air Force to plan for the replacement of the 25 Air National Guard fighter aircraft squadrons across the country with advanced fighter aircraft, including Selfridge’s A-10s.
