The German Air Force has trained quietly over the
American Southwest for 30 years. Now, a proposed bombing range for
German planes has attracted the ire of ranchers and
environmentalists.
The U.S. Air Force, which
manages the training program, wants to put the targets on part of
the McGregor Range in southern New Mexico. The Air Force also wants
to add 30 German Tornado aircraft to 12 already at Holloman Air
Force Base, near Alamogordo, N.M.
What bothers
critics is that Tornadoes are designed for low-altitude action, and
they approach targets at 500 feet above ground. They say the
flights will traumatize wildlife and
livestock.
“The Tornado is one of the world’s
noisiest military aircraft,” says Peter Galvin, conservation
biologist with the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity.
But the German commander, Col. Eckhard Sowada,
says New Mexico offers two things that Germany and much of Europe
do not: space for maneuvers over mostly unpopulated lands, and good
weather.
The U.S. Air Force released a draft
environmental impact statement in June, concluding that altered
flight paths would minimize impacts to wildlife and livestock. A
final EIS is due in December, and then the secretary of the Air
Force will decide whether to go ahead with the
project.
Meanwhile, the Germans wait. “We are
guests,” says Col. Sowada. “We have to sit back and see what the
controversy will bring about.”
For a copy of the
draft EIS, write Sheryl Parker at Headquarters Air Combat
Command/CEVA, 129 Andrews St., Langley Air Force Base, VA
23665-2769.
* Peter Chilson
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Germany targets U.S. airspace.
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