Thursday, January 15, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Air Force asks for control of more Nye County land

1,979 acres needed for buffer around airstrip near Warm Springs

Click image for enlargement.

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force is seeking to expand its land holdings in Nye County for a base camp used to support operations at the Nellis Range.

The service has filed an application with the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw 1,979 acres of public land alongside Highway 6 about 10 miles northeast of Warm Springs.

The Air Force has exclusive use of 400 acres, which includes a 7,000-foot runway parallel to the highway, according to satellite images examined by globalsecurity.org, a nonprofit security think tank in Alexandria, Va.

The proposal was made public last week through a BLM posting in the Federal Register. The land withdrawal was filed by Fred Kuhn, Air Force deputy assistant secretary for installations.

"The current withdrawn area does not contain an adequate safety margin around the airstrip," Air Force spokeswoman Marriane Miclat said.

The runway often is closed, Miclat said, and it is not used as a practice area. She described the camp as one where "intermittent flight activity occurs."

Air Force documents describe the base camp as a support station for a communications site on a nearby mountaintop and operations at the Nevada Test and Training Range.

The Air Force application to the BLM states that denying the additional land "would be detrimental to the ability of this facility to meet its site support responsibilities, negatively impacting the safe and secure operation of military activities" on the testing range.

At the same time it applied for use of more public land, the Air Force filed to renew a 200-acre withdrawal for the communications site on Halligan Mesa, a few miles from the base camp.

The BLM has withdrawn the two parcels of land for Air Force use since 1985, according to the application.

The Air Force would not say which military installation controls the base camp and the nearby communications site. Miclat said no specific unit is assigned to either property.

Neither the Pentagon nor Nellis Air Force Base officials, who oversee the testing and training range, could provide further details about the base camp.

After seeing satellite images, globalsecurity.org senior fellow Tim Brown said the property is too close to a highway to be home to secret operations.

"It's really unusual to have a military installation so close to a highway," Brown said. "I think because this thing was pretty close to a public road they have decided for whatever reason they need a bigger perimeter."