From the Sound Defense Alliance:
HOW DOES THE WAR IN UKRAINE
AFFECT OUR MISSION?
The short answer is that it doesn’t change it at all.
- We have never said that the Growlers are not a national security asset and have never said that the Growler program shouldn’t be fully funded;
- Likewise, we have never said that Growler pilots shouldn’t be fully trained to be the best pilots in the world;
- What we have said is that training should be conducted in safe and appropriate locations:
- Growlers should not be trained over or near civilian homes, schools, hospitals, farms and businesses. This is the situation at Ault Field and in Central Whidbey at the OLF;
- Growlers pilots should train in locations that do not impact civilians or fragile environments. They should train in the military reservations that Congress has provided for such military activities, e.g. China Lake and El Centro, California. They should not train over the Olympic National Forest or our federal, state and local parks;
- Growler pilots should train in locations where the weather does not limit or impact training schedules, unlike in Central Whidbey where training schedules are regularly cancelled due to weather conditions; and
- Growler pilots should not train in migratory bird flyways. Recently we have seen thousands of ducks and geese in the fields at the Reuble Farm directly under path 32. One bird strike could be disastrous.
Growler training needs to be moved, not stopped. This is just as much for the safety and benefit of our brave pilots as it is for the civilians on the ground.
MANAGE THE DAMAGE 