In the News

Barnes Air National Guard Base and the 104th Fighter Wing wouldn’t have been considered as a new home for F-35A Lightning II jets if it didn’t have a new security gate.

Thursday, the guard celebrated the completion of the new $6.7 million “Minuteman Gate” that relocates the base’s main entrance to Route 10 and 202 and upgrades base security.

“We’re going to get the F-35s up here in the next few years,” Gov. Maura T. Healey said at the celebration of the new gate attended also by U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and city officials.

The old gate — locator a quarter mile away on Falcon Drive — dated back to the 1950s, said Col. Michael Glass, 104th Operations Group commander. That meant it didn’t meet modern anti-terrorism standards.

The new gate has all the required setbacks. It also includes a 300-square-foot gatehouse, 1,200 square feet of covered area, two lanes for checkpoints and a 1,200-square-foot bay for commercial vehicle inspections, security fencing, passive vehicle barriers and emergency power generation.

The base began construction of the gate in 2022, and it was first used in October.

The state provided $4.5 million for the gate with the rest coming from the federal government.

Major Gen. Gary Keefe, adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard, said such cooperation is imperative given military budgets and the threats the nation faces from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran’s proxy wars in the Middle East.

That cooperation also comes from the city of Westfield and surrounding communities.

“We understand the importance of bases like this, of bases like Westover (Air Reserve Base in Chicopee), of the armories that are through the commonwealth,” Keefe said. “You will not get community support for military installations like you get in Western Massachusetts. Barnes and Westover are sacred to people in Western Massachusetts.”

Neal said 25 years ago, the conversation revolved around the very survival of Barnes and Westover as the military looked to close bases around the world.

“There was serious lobbying that took place,” Neal said.

Westfield Mayor Michael McCabe singled out Monica Tibbits-Nutt, secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, in the crowd asking rhetorically if there would be a “light at the end of the tunnel.”

The city would like to improve the state-owned intersection near the gate.

In addition to the gate, the arrival of the F-35 fighter jets is also expected to add about $55 million in military-funded construction at the base.

The gate is part of $63 million in public, military and private construction at 1,200-acre Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport and Barnes Air National Guard Base, a list that includes a $32 million expansion and rebuilding of two taxiways, a project that started in May.

The airport represents 2,100 jobs, both military and civilian, with an annual economic output of $236 million.