Obernolte: Marines’ proposed takeover of Johnson Valley OHV airspace “extremely troubling”

A proposed expansion of the Marine Corps’ Special Use Airspace (SUA) could impact the Morongo Basin’s culture of off-roading, including an annual event that brings tens of thousands of visitors to the hi-desert. The possibility of a year-round takeover of the airspace has caught the attention of off-roaders, local airports, and the district’s Congressional representative.

The sight and sounds of military aircraft flying over the hi-desert shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has spent time here. The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center is located just outside Twentynine Palms, but their training area of operation stretches all the way west to Johnson Valley where they conduct occasional training operations on over 50,000 acres of shared public land. That also includes the airspace above it, which is broken up into different zones with names like Restricted Areas, Military Operation Areas, Warning Areas, Prohibited Areas, Alert Areas, Controlled Firing areas and National Security Areas. 

Under a new Marine Corps Proposed Action, current aircraft operations at the Combat Center would spread out across the existing Special Use Airspace and expand into newly established and modified zones. The current number of annual aircraft training missions (known as sorties) would increase as a result. The Marine Corps say that the large Lockheed Martin KC-130 would have 120 additional sorties, 20 annual sorties of Joint Aerial Refueling, and 1,599 annual sorties of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) training missions, also known as drones. 

The expansion would also reserve the airspace for the Marine Corp for a full 365 days a year. That has concerned residents who enjoy off-highway vehicle recreation in Johnson Valley, as well as non-profits organizations such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition which has called for the public to oppose the expansion. They say that the restrictions would limit the entire Johnson Valley area from using civilian aircraft such as drones or emergency medevacs, two major parts of OHV events like King of the Hammers.

23rd district Representative Jay Obernolte also brought up the issue before Congress earlier this week. Obernolte says that while he fully supports the desire for expanded training operations, the restrictions on civilian airspace is an overreach.

“We want to make sure the Marine Corps has access to all of the airspace they need to conduct their operations, but Mr. Speaker, they are going about it in an extremely troubling way. They are proposing to create a new restricted air area over this airspace, which would restrict the public’s access to that effectively full-time, despite the fact that the Marine Corps only proposes to make use of this airspace 60 or fewer days every year.

“That’s less than 20 percent of the time, Mr. Speaker. The problem with this is it’s going to have a devastating impact on four local area airports, as well as operations in the adjacent Johnson Valley, which is home to the King of the Hammers… one of the largest off-roading races in the world and one in which over 80,000 spectators enjoy every year in my district,” Obernolte said as he address Congress.

Representative Obernolte proposed a temporary flight restriction on days that the Marines wanted to use it, which would then be communicated to all local users of the airspace. That includes facilities like the Yucca Valley Airport, which formerly opposed the expansion at a recent meeting where Board President Tim Lewis called it a “bad deal.”

Representative Obernolte’s proposed solution isn’t “reinventing the wheel,” he says. In fact, a solution was already proposed four years ago.

“Or, Mr. Speaker, they could better and more effectively communicate when they are using that airspace to other airspace users, so the public would be aware of when the military needed the airspace and when the public had access to that. And in fact, we have already directed them to do exactly that. In the National Defense Authorization Act in 2021, we directed the Department of Defense and the FAA to work together to develop a system to digitally inform the public when restricted airspace was activated and when the public was welcome to use deactivated airspace.

And they were given six months to do that. This delivery already exists for temporary flight restrictions, this would just be extending it to the restricted areas. But Mr. Speaker, four years later now, the DOD and the FAA have still not acted on this. My amendment simply conditions the Marine Corps’ issuance of a new restricted area on compliance with the direction of Congress that we have already given them four years ago to create this new information channel.”

On the website detailing the proposed expansion, the Marine Corps says that there would be no change to the public’s access to the Johnson Valley Shared Use Area.

The Shared Use area makes up about half of the 96,000 acres of Johnson Valley OHV land that is maintained by the Bureau of Land Management.

The post Obernolte: Marines’ proposed takeover of Johnson Valley OHV airspace “extremely troubling” appeared first on Z107.7 FM Joshua Tree.