Thank you for telling the FAA to protect the Gila Wilderness from military training

Thank you for telling the FAA to disapprove the Air Force proposal to expand military combat training over rural communities and tribal and public lands in southern Arizona and southwest New Mexico.

Over 400 individuals submitted their comments through the Peaceful Gila Skies petition platform and 35 organizations in New Mexico and Arizona submitted technical comments to the FAA.

The U.S. Air Force is proposing to modify ten existing Military Operations Areas (MOAs) that stretch across southern Arizona into southwest New Mexico including the Gila Wilderness as part of their Special Use Airspace Optimization Strategy. The Air Force plan would authorize thousands of additional low-elevation fighter jet maneuvers, lower the floor for supersonic flights that cause sonic booms to as low as 5000 feet, allow subsonic flights to as low as 100 feet, and authorize dropping of flammable flares at low elevation. The proposed military training exercises will impact dozens of rural communities, affect 30 tribes and pueblos, and subject millions of acres of federal public lands to increased noise, pollution, and risk of fire.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was requesting public comments regarding the Air Force proposal. They were particularly interested in impacts to aviation, including airports and general (private) aviation, and public safety since the agency will have a role in the final decision on the airspace expansion proposal.

Given the significant risk to rural and tribal communities, civil aviation, and noise-sensitive areas in southern Arizona and southwest New Mexico, the FAA should reject the Air Force’s proposal and recommend that the USAF restrict its lower elevation and supersonic flights, and other combat training, such as dropping chaff and flares, to the Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR) where it’s already happening.

• The Air Force proposal will significantly impact civil aviation within the proposed expanded airspace, with increased risk to pilot and public safety and negative effects to general aviation operations and local economies surrounding smaller public and private airports and pilot training facilities.
• The environmental impacts of the proposal have not been adequately assessed in the Air Force Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and therefore the FAA should reject the DEIS.
• The FAA must comply with its mandates under the Federal Transportation Act and comprehensively assess the noise impacts of the Air Force proposal on public lands, wildlife and historic sites, as well as evaluate prudent and reasonable alternatives, such as the BMGR, to avoid noise-sensitive areas.

The Air Force has delayed the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for its proposal to the spring of 2026, with the Record of Decision to follow in the summer of 2026.