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Air Force buying land, easements around Luke AFB

March 11, 2004 (by Lieven Dewitte) - The Air Force plans to acquire more than 2,100 acres and permanent easements around Luke Air Force Base with $27.3 million in federal money.
The Air Force believes that the environmental documentation needed to begin buying land in Luke's departure corridors will be completed in April and that the first tract will be bought in June.



The Air Force plans to buy 273 acres around its munitions-storage area south of the base for about $6 million. By connecting the storage area to the base, the service could better protect the transport of live ordnance to the base's flight line.



The remaining $21.3 million would be used to buy land or easement rights for more than 1,700 acres, mostly in the southern departure corridor.



That corridor is important because it is the only route left to F-16 pilots for live-armed flights to the Barry M. Goldwater Range in southern Arizona. Most of Luke's 170 sorties a day take off to the south.


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