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U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta discussed DoD budget plans in Washington D.C. on Thursday, and among the projected cuts is the C-27J cargo aircraft.

Four of those aircraft were set to come to the Montana Air National Guard in Great Falls to help fill the void of the departing F-15's.

The Air Force will divest the fleet of 38 C-27 cargo planes, leaving the Montana Air National Guard in the dark for future missions.

MT State Senator Ed Buttrey (R-Great Falls) said, "The Air Force is getting back to its core mission, and the C-27 is not a core Air Force aircraft. So it shouldn't come as any surprise, we know that even with some initial funding, it wasn't going to be funded for the long term. So again, I don't think we should really be surprised."

While Buttrey isn't surprised to hear about the cancellation of the mission, he believes we need to continue fighting for the F-15s.

The Central Montana Defense Alliance says they have been assured the F-15's will be replaced with another flying mission.

CMDA spokesman David Weissman said, "There are many other options out there, and now that we're looking at the budget and they are looking at the budget in a much different way, there's going to be other missions that come out of, for instance, the 'big' Air Force that are going to be retired out and moved into the Air Guard. And there lies our answer for the Montana Air National Guard."

Montana is not the only state missing out on the C-27s; the 38 planes were going to be split among several different bases.