Local opinion: Can we tolerate more fighter-jet noise?

The Air Force intends to change some flight patterns above Tucson. This will increase the noise of fighter jets over our homes.

Currently, many of the jets based at Davis-Monthan and at Tucson International Airport fly westward, to an area where their pilots can practice. Soon, the Air Force will send those fighter jets eastward instead, flying over Tucson’s residential neighborhoods to practice at several Military Operating Areas.

The Air Force is required to analyze the impacts of this change. It has published its analysis in a document called an Environmental Impact Statement. Hidden in the EIS’s 884 pages are indications of some of the impacts we will suffer.

The EIS entirely ignores other impacts.

The Air Force fails to analyze the noise that our neighborhoods will endure as the fighter jets take off and land at DM and TIA. The Air Force claims it does not have to analyze the noise because the jets will fly above 10,000 feet.

The Air Force does not explain how the jets will take off and land while staying above 10,000 feet.

The noise of take-offs and landings in the middle of the night is particularly disturbing to our residential neighborhoods.

The Air Force claims the percentage of night flights flying east will not change. But as flights to the east increase, the number of night flights will increase. It’s simple arithmetic.

The EIS calculates how many additional tons of greenhouse gases the Air Force action will produce. It also calculates the cost of the damages that the additional greenhouse gases will cause through storms and flooding. According to the EIS, the cost of the damages will amount to $48.8 billion.

The Air Force concludes that $48.8 billion in damages is “too trivial or minor to merit consideration.”

Thirty-one federally designated Wilderness Areas will be impacted by the Air Force action. The jets will be noisy when they fly over the wilderness areas. Many flights will generate sonic booms.

Perhaps the greatest threat is to Chiricahua National Monument.

The National Park Service describes Chiricahua: “By far the most noticeable natural features in the park are the rhyolite rock pinnacles for which the monument was created to protect. Rising sometimes hundreds of feet into the air, many of these pinnacles are balancing on a small base, seemingly ready to topple over at any time.”

The park is so sensitive to noise that visitors are not allowed to fly personal drones. Yet, the Air Force will fly fighter jets low over the park and will create sonic booms.

Each successive sonic boom will increase the cracking of the fragile spires and balancing rocks. Sooner or later, they will fall into the canyons below.

Throughout the EIS, the Air Force uses DM’s A-10 fighter jet as a major factor in its calculation of noise and other impacts. The EIS acknowledges this is wrong. It’s wrong, because the A-10 is now being retired.

The A-10 is the quietest fighter jet the Air Force has.

The commander of DM’s 355th Operations group, which flies DM’s A-10s, has stated that the A-10s’ retirement “arguably allows a more expeditious stand-up of the F-35.” In plain English, the commander expects A-10s will be replaced by F-35s.

The F-35 is the loudest fighter jet the Air Force has.

The EIS analyzes noise impacts by incorrectly basing its calculations on the quiet A-10, and not the loud F-35. The results do not portray reality. At the least, the results are false and misleading.

If you’re concerned about fighter-jet noise over our residential neighborhoods, if you’re concerned about greenhouse gases, if you’re concerned about the other impacts of the Air Force’s action, you can comment to the Air Force.

Write to them at:

Arizona Regional Airspace EIS

c/o Stantec

501 Butler Farm Rd., Suite H

Hampton, VA 23666

The deadline for commenting is Nov. 12.