Plan to Add Planes at Base Focus of Forum

Preparing for the closure of a base in San Diego, the Navy wants to hear today community comments on a proposal to move four squadrons of E2-C Hawkeye aircraft and 990 related personnel to Point Mugu.

The Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center is one of four bases being considered as the future home of the 16 planes that must leave Miramar Naval Air Station before it shuts down next year.

Point Mugu leaders have been actively courting the squadrons as part of a drive to bring extra work and to fatten the payroll at the Navy base near Oxnard that has shrunk in recent years with the declining federal defense budget.

Navy backers in the community plan to make a pitch for the squadrons at tonight’s public meeting, to be held in Oxnard.

“We want to have a good turnout,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said. “This will be a great boost for the Ventura County economy.”

Navy officials also expect some members of the public to complain about any extra noise coming from the airfield, which provides a staging platform for some of the Navy’s hottest and noisiest jets.

But Navy officials and their supporters are quick to point out that the E2-C Hawkeyes are one of the military’s quietest planes.

They are nicknamed Hummers because their turboprop engines hum, instead of roaring like jet fighters and bombers.

The public meeting begins at 7 p.m. tonight at the Oxnard Center for Performing Arts, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard.