FORT DRUM (Tribune News Service) — Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield is set to receive millions of dollars for upgrades to Fort Drum’s airfield.

An announcement was made on Thursday by Sen. Charles E. Schumer, saying that he secured an additional $18 million in the Senate Defense Appropriations Bill.

“Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield at Fort Drum is mission critical to the 10th Mountain Division, our most deployed US Army unit, because it is the launching pad that enables us to rapidly deploy and project power overseas in support of our national security, but it needs key upgrades, which this $18 million in funding addresses,” Schumer, D-NY, said in a news release. “After decades of supporting deployment operations, Wheeler-Sack’s legacy lighting and electrical infrastructure is in dire need of immediate repairs and upgrades, with more than 70% of the lighting system not being mission capable.”

Schumer said they could use the additional $18 million “as a down-payment” in order to make the repairs that are needed to bring the airfield back to “full mission capability” by upgrading its lighting system.

“While this $18 million is a huge step forward that I will fight to fully secure in a final appropriations package, it is imperative that the Army match congressional appropriations and immediately provide the remainder of the $70 million project cost to complete these upgrades,” Schumer said in the release.

If the Army and Congress do not prioritize and provide federal funding soon to complete the repairs to the lighting and electrical infrastructure, “it will significantly degrade the 10th Mountain Division’s mission readiness,” Schumer said.

Schumer stated in the news release that in a meeting with Maj. Gen. Scott Naumann, Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum, the senator vowed to fight for the funding.

Last week, Schumer announced $18.5 will be going to Fort Drum for the planning and design of an aircraft maintenance hangar addition and an Operational Readiness Training Complex, which he calls “a vital step in unlocking the funding process.”

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