• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- An Air Force decision on its plan to more than triple the airspace that can be used in training exercises for Dakotas-based B-1 and B-52 bombers is expected in March, Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh said Wednesday.
• But the plan to expand the Powder River Training Complex, which has been in the works for more than six years, will then have go to the Federal Aviation Administration, Welsh told a U.S. Senate panel Wednesday.
• "The FAA will have to release their own independent record of decision and the analysis that goes with it, and we'll be restricted from using that airspace until that action is complete," he said.
• U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., asked Welsh for a status update on the plan Wednesday during a Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.
• Johnsons said it's discouraging that the decision is still a year away, but he hopes that the Air Force uses the time to continue addressing issues and engaging people affected by the expansion.
• "Having the expanded training airspace would be an asset for Ellsworth and is something the Base and the Air Force have been working on for many years," he said in a statement. "As we are learning firsthand, expanding training airspace is a lengthy process that requires consultations with stakeholders and environmental impact studies, among other things."
• The Powder River Training Complex, centered just northwest of where South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana meet, now spans about 8,300 square miles.
• The space can accommodate only one or two bombers at a time, so some B-1B Lancers from South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base and B-52 Stratofortress bombers from North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base have had to fly to Utah or Nevada for their combat exercises.
• The Air Force has said expanded area would help pilots practice bomb runs, defensive maneuvers and evasive actions used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• It wants to add three "military operation areas" to create a fly space of about 27,500 square miles -- an area larger than the state of West Virginia. The complex would encompass a portion of southwestern North Dakota and new parts of northwestern South Dakota and southeastern Montana.
• The draft plan has irked some civilian pilots concerned about the additional air traffic as well as some ranchers who worry that flyovers by low-flying, 146-

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