Tucson International Airport, a base for fighter-jet training since the 1950s, is one of five locations being considered as a home for the F-35, the military’s next-generation aircraft.
Opponents warn that if the F-35 comes to Tucson, city residents will be heavily impacted by noise and safety issues. Supporters, on the other hand, predict economic problems if the aging F-16 project, currently flying about 50 sorties a day out of TIA, is not replaced.
Both sides, however, agree that next week’s Air Force-sponsored open houses are important opportunities for people to voice their opinions.
“Quality of life is the first priority,” argues midtown resident Stanley Feldman, who is concerned about the possible substantial increase in noise with F-35s. “Economics comes next.”
But Bill Valenzuela, a member of the 162nd Fighter Wing Minuteman Committee, a group that supports the Arizona Air National Guard training mission at TIA, says economic needs come first. “We’ve had two tough years and need the dollars,” he says. “We need the F-35 bad.”
Currently, the F-16 provides about 1,000 full-time jobs and an estimated annual economic impact of $280 million.
By the Air Force’s own reports, though, the F-35 is a loud aircraft—possibly louder than any jet that has ever been used for training in Tucson.
Despite that, Tim Amalong, president of the Minuteman Committee (which has no relation to the border-vigilante groups with similar names), told a press briefing a few weeks ago: “If we have Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (DM) and the 162nd Fighter Wing at TIA going away, noise won’t be considered that much of an issue.”
F-35 opponents fear the plane will dramatically degrade Tucson’s quality of life. Feldman, a former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, says of the F-35: “It’s going to destroy the integrity of the central city, and the quality of life in dozens of neighborhoods and across the University of Arizona.”
Amalong responds: “Noise won’t be the deciding factor in the F-35 coming to town.” He and other supporters believe the increase in noise can be mitigated to a level that is acceptable to the community.
But Chris Reynolds, a former air traffic controller at both D-M and TIA, told a recent meeting of Tucson Forward—a group that believes the F-35 will have negative impacts on Tucson—that there was “no silver bullet to mitigate this thing. … There’s not much the Air Force can do to mitigate (the noise) with the procedures we have in place.”
Opponents say that noise from the F-35 will not only be louder, but much more grating than the sound of the F-16, due to his higher frequency level.
A 2008 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) completed for Eglin Air Force Base in Florida seems to confirm the point. That EIS has a table showing that at 2,000 feet, the F-35 produces 112 decibels of sound on the ground, which is louder than a power saw three feet from your face. The comparable noise figure for the F-16 is 94 decibels.
Jobs and noise are not the only concerns that will be raised at two F-35 open houses in Tucson next week. The plane’s impact on desert wildlife is another factor likely to be considered in the EIS.
However, the Air Force has its own concerns that F-35 proponents say justify the new plane. Maj. Gabe Johnson, a spokesman for the 162nd Wing, observes: “Our fleet of fighter aircraft is the oldest it’s ever been in the history of the Air Force.”
Valenzuela, a former Marine, sees the F-35 giving vital air support to our troops. “The men and women fighting on the ground are close to my heart,” he says.
However, Feldman—who says he supports the mission of the military—doesn’t believe that patriotic arguments should be used against citizens trying to defend their homes and quality of life. In a recent letter, he wrote: “The United States will be just as safe if the F-35s are based … (at) any one of many other (less densely populated) locations.”
The F-35 EIS now being prepared for Tucson International Airport will play a role in the Air Force’s ultimate decision about the plane coming to Tucson.
In its first phase, known as “scoping,” a federal contractor will gather input at the open houses.
“The government will have its ears wide open to the public,” says Maj. Johnson. “… There’ll be displays, posters and literature, but no formal presentation. Mostly, the open houses will be information flowing from the public into the study.”
After the scoping process, draft environmental impact statements will be prepared for each of the five training sites under consideration. The Air Force anticipates completing these by the end of 2010.
Public hearings will then be held next year on the draft reports, and a final EIS will be released. After a public comment period, a formal “record of decision” based on the EIS will be made, and the Air Force will ultimately decide where to train pilots to fly the F-35.
Despite their differing viewpoints, Feldman and Amalong agree that it’s important for the public to attend the open houses.
In Feldman’s mind, people should be looking for “the truth, not propaganda.” He says the F-35 should be flown over Tucson in its actual possible flight pattern during the EIS process. “That way, people will know what the reality of the situation is,” he says.
For Amalong, the overriding priority is economic opportunity: “This is about the community and the financial impact (of the F-35).”
He predicts that F-35 supporters will “be out in force to the scoping meetings.”
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 3, 2010.
People need to understand that an increase in decibels — like the jump from 94 decibels of noise for the F-16 to the 112 decibels of the F-35 — is not arithmetic but logarithmic. Sound pressure increase 50% for every 3 decibels. The difference is huge.
Personally, if I ever come across anyone who actually supports the F-35 in Tucson, they are going to hear the Sound of Freedom: my boot up their ass.
It’s the American Way, after all.
I’m a native Tucsonan and grew up about a mile and a half from the base. I have known many air force and ex-air force people over the years. D-M has always been a part of the city that I know. But Dick, you aren’t addressing my main point: the HUGE difference in noise level in these F-35s over anything else we have ever had here.
The current flight path crosses the University of Arizona and many schools and places where a quiet environment is vital to the conduct of daily affairs. The A-10s fly over more or less constantly, and fortunately are not terribly noisy jets. We had a flyover of some Navy jets recently that are louder than the F-16 but not as loud as the F-35. It shook the fucking walls down where I work at the University.
My “boot up your ass” statement was a bit of irony relating to Toby Keith’s inane song that represented everything distasteful and manipulative about the whole cowboy nationalism and rah-rah military thing this country has gone through for the past 10 years or so. And I know for damn sure that F-35 supporters are going to be using the whole “Sound Of Freedom” pablum to try to persuade Tucsonans to accept the F-35s.
You have already trotted out another empty persuader: that military and ex-military types support the F-35s. People in the military? No shit. It’s their bread and butter. But they will all be rotating out of my city in due course. Ex-military? Maybe you should conduct a poll. Last time I heard, being a veteran didn’t make someone stupid. Your final thought about the inevitability of the F-35s may be true — truer than the people organizing the bullshit public forums would like us to think. So thanks for that.
And as far as my boot, which old fat ex-military F-35 supporter would you like me to aim it at? Let’s make this fair.
The F-35 is not being considered for D-M. The Air National Guard at Tucson Airport is a candidate. The aircraft is supposed to replace the F-16s that fly out of there. To learn more about it visit http://tucsonf35.com/. From this site Arizonans can register their support for the F-35 at TIA.
Everyone should look at the site and read the FAQs, then make up their own minds.
A reminder, folks, that name-calling will not be tolerated on our happy little Internet home.
Does it make much difference where the F-35s park? They all fly over Tucson at some point. I assume I would hear the F-35s where I now hear the F-16s, which are plenty loud already. The peaceful operation of our bustling metropolis often comes to a standstill while these jets fly over.
But most importantly, it interrupts me when I am watching “Ow, My Balls!” Not okay!
Damn, Jimmy, I miss Dick already, and now none of my replies make sense. :
A funny thing…the general public thinks the people who will fly the F-35 here in Tucson will (and I quote from an earlier post) only live in Tucson temporarily…”But they will all be rotating out of my city in due course.” This is simply not true. The folks that will fly the jet are Arizona Guardsmen…most have lived in the city for 15 years plus. Guardsmen don’t “rotate”. The F-35 will be flying over their house too, over their children’s schools, and over their spouse’s workplace. Both quality of life and economics are an issue, and both need to be discussed. What do you think will happen if the guard unit goes away, and suddenly over 1,000 people who have lived in Tucson for the past 15 or more years, all attempt to sell their house to move to “any one of many other (less densely populated) locations?” That “less populated area” will get an economic boom, and Tucson will suffer yet another housing crash…and your tax dollars will go towards relocating those guardsmen. Not to mention more of your tax dollars to build the infrastructure to support the F-35 at the “less populated area”. There are always growing pains with progress, I would rather see an adult discussion on the pros and cons with some good education…rather then resorting to cuss words and juvenile playground violence.