What is the issue?
BACKGROUND: The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is charged with
bringing “solutions” for a replacement for the current San Diego metropolitan
commercial airport to the voters of San Diego County by November 2006. Charged
with this task by the State of California Legislative action, the Airport
Authority engaged in an aggressive effort to identify a site (or sites) for a
future airport to replace Lindbergh Field.
In light of the fact that neither the military nor the Base Realignment and
Closure (BRAC) Commission recommended closure of Marine Corps Air Station
Miramar as part of the BRAC process, the option of exclusive use of Miramar as
a replacement for Lindbergh Field is not available to the Authority.
Citing considerable problems with the non-military sites in San Diego County,
the Authority is now presenting the argument for dual, or shared use, of
Miramar despite the fact that the military has consistently indicated that
dual, or shared use, of Miramar by both military and scheduled commercial air
operations is not possible.
Arguing for “out of the box” thinking by the military, the Airport Authority
pressed forward to further study dual, or shared use, of Miramar. The Authority
blindly disregarded the impossibility of such a proposal, and the considerable
information that has been presented repeatedly by the military.
DISCUSSION: MCAS Miramar is integrated into the most concentrated operational
training complex in the world. The previous BRAC rounds that closed many
military bases on the West Coast have concentrated Navy and Marine Corps forces
in the greater San Diego area. Given the pressures of development throughout
the nation, this integrated range complex and the bases that support it cannot
be reproduced anywhere in the country.
This range and base complex is also designed to accommodate the necessarily
random nature of military operations and training. This requirement for
randomness in operations, and the ability to surge in support of National
Defense and its concurrent tasking, is a major factor, among many, that
precludes any efficient or safe dual, or shared, operations with scheduled
commercial air traffic at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
There are a substantial number of national directives that address dual, or
shared use of military aviation bases. All of these were established to ensure
the safety and well being of the neighboring communities, the security of the
base, and the readiness, training and safety of the military units that use
those bases.
The Airport Authority projects an increase in airport operations at Lindbergh
Field from approximately 200,000 per year in 2004 to a minimum of 260,000 by
2022, and a concomitant increase in passengers from 16.4 million to 23 million
in the same time frame. Setting aside the question of the accuracy of these
estimates, it should be obvious that commercial air traffic with a concentrated
schedule of more than 200,000 operations a year cannot be safely integrated
with the local military’s high intensity tactical air operations with its
randomness, and requirements for priority landing and take-off handling.
The opposition to the proposed dual or shared use of MCAS Miramar reflects the
studied realization that any such use would adversely affect our national
security, the safety and well being of the surrounding civilian neighbors, and
seriously impact the safety of commercial passenger aviation, and the
readiness, training, and safety of the Marines at Miramar.
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