A Battle Over Land Between the Military and a State That ‘Has Given Enough’

Critics of the expansion, especially conservative ones, say they support the need for military readiness and training. But they feel the federal government controls too much of the state’s land and have been urging the Air Force to look elsewhere. The airspace reserved for training is around three times the size of Connecticut and off-limits to commercial aircraft.

“There’s Utah, there’s northern Idaho, there’s areas that they could use for these fly areas and training,” John C. Ellison, another Republican member of the Nevada Assembly, said during the March hearings. “I don’t support any more taking of land and restricting of areas when we have so little now.”

Around 84 percent of land in Nevada is owned by the federal government, the highest percentage among the 50 states. In addition to the Air Force’s training area, the Navy has the Fallon Range Training Complex in the northern high desert east of Reno, an area that the Navy is seeking to expand by 600,000 acres. The Energy Department controls an area around Yucca Mountain, which the Trump Administration is seeking to make the nation’s permanent repository for nuclear waste, a long-disputed project in Nevada.

Colonel Craddock said Nevada gives the Air Force possibilities that no other state can offer.

“We have a large contiguous piece of land that is very sparsely populated,” he said. And the terrain has the added advantage of resembling those of countries where the United States military often operates.

About half of the wildlife refuge — more than 800,000 acres — is already used by the Air Force.

The proximity of war simulations to the vast refuge can make for a jarring contrast. On a recent visit, the screech of a red-tail hawk was followed by the earthshaking sonic boom of a military jet.

“That’s not thunder,” said Amy Sprunger, an employee of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service who has served as the manager of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge for the past 18 years.

The sonic booms are so powerful that the Air Force has compensated homeowners in Alamo, Nev., a town on the edge of the refuge, for damage to their homes.