Topeka ? With military base closings possible in 2005, a Pentagon official and a consultant are questioning whether a Kansas Air National Guard unit will remain based at Topeka’s Forbes Field.

Since 1978, the 190th Air Refueling Wing, which flies KC-135E tankers for mid-air refueling of other planes, has headquartered at the airport south of Topeka. The unit has 950 employees and a $26 million payroll.

Dan Stanley, a former Kansas secretary of administration who now serves as deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon, said the 190th could face being shut down or consolidated with another unit in 2005, when a federal commission is scheduled to consider base closings.

“My view is that the 190th ought to be aggressive about looking for other missions or the Kansas National Air Guard ought to be aggressive about looking for other missions in order to keep Forbes relevant beyond a staging platform for Fort Riley,” Stanley told The Topeka Capital-Journal.

Retired Army Col. Bruce B.G. Clarke, who now works as a consultant for defense contractors, said the 190th and Forbes were threatened by competition with other tanker units in the area, including the 184th Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base outside Wichita.

Also, he said, the 190th could be in danger if Fort Riley is scaled back or closed, though members of the state’s congressional delegation are working to return the headquarters of the Army’s famed 1st Infantry Division to the post.

“Forbes is threatened from two perspectives — one from the competition with McConnell and the second is if something happens to Fort Riley,” Clarke said. But he said as long as Fort Riley had forces to deploy, “Forbes is needed.”

“But if the Air Force is going to shut down one refueling wing, Forbes is gone,” Clarke added.

Col. Gregg Burden, the 190th commander, said Forbes Field had many assets, including improved areas where planes taxi, park and take off, and some of the longest runways in the Midwest. Also, he said, the military will continue to need many mid-air refueling missions.

“Yeah, there’s a concern with all the tanker units located here in the Midwest, but I think there is enough business to go around,” he said. “There aren’t enough tankers to take care of the refuelings and the missions that we already have.”

The KC-135E tankers’ engines are considered less efficient than those of the KC-135R tankers, which McConnell flies. Stanley said he expected no future upgrades for the KC-135Es.

“I see that program ending,” he said. “This is something I’ve seen for a long time that has been a matter of concern to me.”

But, Burden said, “just because we don’t have the upgraded engines doesn’t in any way mean that we aren’t capable and effective.”