SPOKANE, Wash. -- Congress has ordered the Pentagon to cut the defense budget by a half trillion dollars during the next decade, and while experts predict the retiring of dozens of planes and ships and two more rounds of base closures, Fairchild Air Force Base may survive and thrive in the coming years.

First of all, there are 53 million reasons why it's not likely Fairchild will be closed in the coming base realignments and closures. $53 Million is the amount the Defense Department spent just last year on upgrading the air base's runway.

In fact, the spending reduction strategy put forward by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta actually makes Fairchild more valuable to the US military.

Part of the spending plan involves bringing units based overseas home. Two of the four Army brigades based in Europe, for example, will be brought back stateside. However if the US ever needs to quickly project power abroad it will require the Air Force's support, and the Air Force relies on tankers of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing to get their aircraft to their destinations and back.

"Fairchild is a tanker base. We are basically the gas station in the sky for the military. Its' a very important role that Fairchild plays and right now the military wants to protect all the tankers they have and the role Fairchild plays is a top priority," Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers said.

"I was meeting today with Forward Fairchild to make sure we are doing everything possible to make the case that those first tankers come to Fairchild," she added.

It's a possibility that Fairchild may be getting more tankers in the next several years. As soon as 2014 the new KC-46As will start rolling off the assembly line and Spokane's elected officials are pushing hard to bring those new planes here first.

The reason is because not only is Fairchild close to the Boeing plant in Western Washington where the tankers will be built, but Spokane has room for the new planes both on the ground and in the air.

"Getting the new tankers, the -46As here is really important because it solidifies the strategic location for the air bridge over to China and Korea and Asia out at Fairchild Air Force Base," Rich Hadley with Greater Spokane Incorporated said.

Fairchild also wants the mission to train pilots transitioning from the KC-135 to the KC-46A as well as train new flight crews and already has the flight simulators needed for that mission.