The Air Force is accelerating the retirement of its aging F-15 Eagle fighters and, because of that plan, fighters from the Mainland are likely to cover the Hawai'i Air National Guard's air defense role until stealthy F-22 Raptors start arriving in significant numbers, officials said.

Pacific Air Forces said it will move up the retirement of more than 40 aircraft as part of the service's Combat Air Forces restructuring plan announced this week.

The plan calls for retiring many of the Air Force's oldest fighters, including the F-15 Eagles assigned to Hickam Air Force Base and Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. Three A-10 aircraft at Osan Air Base in South Korea also will be retired.

"This move is part of a larger effort to bridge our current force structure with a smaller, more capable future force composed primarily of fifth-generation aircraft," said Gen. Howie Chandler, who commands Pacific Air Forces from Hickam.

All 19 Hawai'i Air National Guard F-15 Eagles will depart by October 2010, the Air Force said. They will be replaced by 20 F-22 Raptors, with delivery beginning in June 2010.

Two maintenance training F-22s are expected in June of that year, followed by two more of the advanced fighters in the fall. But a gap will be created by the sped-up departure of the F-15s and relatively slow arrival of the F-22s.

When the Air Force grounded hundreds of F-15s in 2007 after structural defects were found, Hawai'i was covered by F-16 Fighting Falcons that were part of the Minnesota Air National Guard.

Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony, a Hawai'i National Guard spokesman, yesterday said Hawai'i will be similarly covered when the F-15s are retired.

"There is not going to be any gap with coverage in terms of our air defense mission here," he said.

The Hawai'i Air National Guard already is starting to retire its oldest "A" and "B" model F-15s, and will be left with slightly newer "C" models by August.

Following the May 7 roll-out of its fiscal year 2010 budget proposal, the Air Force announced plans to retire older fighters to fund a smaller and more capable force and redistribute people for higher-priority missions.

The Combat Air Forces restructuring plan would accelerate the retirement of approximately 250 aircraft, including 112 F-15s, 134 F-16s and three A-10s.

"By accepting some short-term risk, we can convert our inventory of legacy fighters and F-22s into a smaller, more flexible and lethal bridge to fifth-generation fighters like the F-35. We'll also add manpower to capabilities needed now for operations across the spectrum of conflict," said Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley.

Under the plan, cost savings of $355 million in fiscal 2010 and $3.5 billion over the next five fiscal years would be used "to reduce current capability gaps," officials said.

The Air Force would invest most of the funds in advanced-capability modifications to remaining fighters and bombers.