Judge Orders Navy To Stop Work On Outlying Field

The US Navy tasted a rare defeat on Friday, not at the hands of a hostile sea power but at the hands of US District Court Judge Terrence Boyle in Eastern North Carolina. The Navy and Marines have been engaged in a bitter conflict with residents of Washington and Beaufort Counties over airspace issues and a proposed Outlying Landing Field (OLF) that the services want to build for carrier-landing practice.

In a lawsuit filed by the counties and environmental groups, and supported by a strange coalition of antidevelopment Luddites, anti-military protesters, local residents, and property developers, plaintiffs charged that the Navy skipped the legally required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), substituting a cursory "Environmental Assessment." Boyle ruled that the Navy did indeed violate the law. Now the Navy can't continue the project without doing a complete, and very costly, EIS. The Navy issued a statement promising to appeal this ruling to the 4th Circuit: "[W]e believe today's decision is the wrong one, both from a legal perspective and from the perspective of national security.... We will continue to pursue this matter through the court system."

The Navy wants to move its intensive training operations to NC from Virginia, where they are wearing out their welcome as wealthy, politically-connected suburbanites sprawl closer and closer to the present OLF Fentress in Chesapeake, VA. A contributing factor in the noise stakes is that the latest Marine plane, the F/A 18 C/D Super Hornet, is significantly louder than the planes it replaces. Carrier landings are also a particularly loud maneuver to practice, as it's routine to go to full power on every touchdown (in case one's hook skips the wires).

The selected site for the OLF is a 33,000 acre plot adjacent to Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. The Navy has budgeted $185 million for the airfield, which didn't include money for lawyers -- or the full EIS.

In order to make the move, the Navy and USMC need the OLF and also want two MOAs, which would make the coast of NC almost entirely special use airspace. With both the airfield and the MOAs, the Navy has faced bitter opposition in this state, normally considered extremely pro-military.

A lawsuit against the MOAs is also pending before Judge Boyle. This testimony has been heard separately from the OLF case, but plaintiffs, defendants, and the environmental-impact issue are all the same.

A wide range of people in North Carolina see the Navy/Marine plans as a threat to safe air travel, tourism, development and the environment. The sheer volume of traffic expected as 10 East Coast Super Hornet squadrons try to jam into the MOAs and onto the OLF has many Tarheels alarmed. There is also a severe bird hazard in the winter months, as this is the wintering range for exactly the sort of fowl you don't want to meet at 450 kt -- snow geese and trumpeter swans.

But there are compelling arguments for the OLF and MOAs as well. The OLF would be ideally situated between two Naval Air Stations (NAS Oceana and MCAS Cherry Point). And existing airfields can't support a steady diet of Super Hornets doing full-throttle touch-and-goes. Existing, non-contiguous Special Use Airspace (SUA) requires Marines to reduce airspeed to a non-tactical sub-250kt while in between at altitudes below 10,000 feet. Other restrictions complicate and devalue tactical training.

Saturday, local newspapers and politicians were celebrating victory -- and vowing to beat Navy on appeal, as well. "David has won the battle," the small, but Pulitzer-winning, Washington County Daily News quoted a local mayor. Congressman G.K. Butterfield issued a statement saying, "...[T]he process was flawed, incomplete and subjective. My hope is that the Navy will now take another look at this site in a transparent and objective manner."

FMI: www.navy.mil