Air Force to expand training airspace in Dakotas

The U.S. Air Force is looking to quadruple the airspace in which it can it can conduct training exercises with its B-1 and B-52 bombers stationed in the Dakotas. The proposal would allow more military pilots to train locally, but some civilian pilots are concerned about the additional air traffic, and some ranchers worry flyovers by low-flying, 146-foot-long aircraft will spook their cattle. The Powder River Training Complex, centered just northwest of where South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana meet, now spans about 6,000 square miles. The space can accommodate only one or two bombers at a time, so some B-1B Lancers from South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base and B-52 Stratofortress bombers from North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base have had to fly as far as Nevada for their combat exercises, said George Stone, Ellsworth's airspace manager. Nelson said he's concerned about a flare hitting one of his natural gas wells or sparking a grass fire, and he worries about how falling debris will affect sheep that are lambing. "Having airplanes thunder over the top of them at 500 feet dropping magnesium flares and chaff is not going to be conducive to a good lamb crop,'' he said...read more