But the range, built during World War II, is inadequate for today's aircraft and military tactics. So the Air Force wants to expand the training range by adding new target areas and simulated threats to challenge the pilots. When we get to that training level, now we're simulating combat as well as we can and now the survival rate has gone up tremendously. And we see that throughout history when we built the Red Flag Training Complex down at Nellis. Once we got our people going through that we learned after the Vietnam War that if we don't train like we're going to fight, then we're not going to survive.
Opponents worry about the effect of the training range on other uses like hiking and hunting.
The recreation here is unique to the rest of the country. This is one of the largest unprotected roadless areas found in the lower 48 states. And it's very easy to find a place out here that you can get away from everything. Once those planes start flying overhead and the low level flights with the supersonic flights come in, you've lost that experience. Opponents argue that the Air Force has other options, including training in other states.