Summary of Alternatives by Airspace

Click on the pictures below for details on the proposed changes for each MOA by alternative.

Optimizing the MOAs in the region would allow for non-hazardous training (notably, low-altitude training and supersonic operations at lower altitudes) to occur in MOAs in the region, improving the availability of Barry M. Goldwater Range restricted areas to support hazardous training as is its purpose. The total operations originating from any of the bases would not change, but rather these operations would be shifted from Barry M. Goldwater Range to the MOAs. The MOAs in the region are a collective regional asset and the use of individual MOAs could fluctuate.

The Draft EIS analysis must account for the operations (known as “sorties”; a sortie includes the takeoff, operation, and landing of one aircraft) that currently occur in each MOA and those that could occur there with the proposed optimization. Since the MOAs are used as a collective asset, the increased use of one MOA would have a corresponding decrease in another MOA in the region. Thus, for analysis purposes, the number of sorties projected to occur in each MOA considers the current use, the anticipated future use if the MOA is modified, and also includes a 10 percent increase to account for fluctuations in training activity and would allow for flexibility in use of the MOAs as a collective regional asset. The projected total in each MOA was used in the Draft EIS analysis to provide an analysis of the possible highest use of any given MOA at a time, this higher use would not occur in all the MOAs at the same time. Therefore, the total sorties for all MOAs combined is not an accurate representation of the total sorties in the region.