Winooski voters approved a ballot measure Tuesday urging Vermont to halt training flights of F-35 fighter jets over densely populated areas such as their city.
The vote was 723-354.
It isn’t clear what, if any, effect the decision will have.
Even before the jets arrived at Burlington International Airport in September 2019, the F-35 program drew widespread opposition from residents in the greater Burlington area. They said the sound of the jets disrupt the health and quality of life of those living near the flight path and cited environmental concerns over the planes, which use as much as 60% more fuel than the previous generation of stealth fighters.
Research from the Vermont Department of Health in 2012 outlined the potential adverse health effects of chronic exposure to noise levels produced by the F-35s, including hearing loss and cardiovascular diseases.
But neither residents, the city councils of three area cities nor court battles stopped the jets’ arrival.
Burlington voters approved a ballot measure on Town Meeting Day in 2018 that advised the City Council to request the cancellation of the local F-35 basing. Mayor Miro Weinberger rejected the City Council’s resolution.
The Winooski and South Burlington city councils made similar pleas that were met with a similar fate.
Frustrations only grew when reports over problems with the $1 trillion F-35 program, the Defense Department’s most expensive weapons effort, began to circulate. Operational testing revealed more than a dozen technical deficiencies in the fighter jets. The cost and complexity of their manufacture turned the stealth fighters, intended to be part of a fleet of next generation planes, into a luxury item.
Last week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown Jr. announced a study that would address how to build a force mix that would include both high-end jets and planes suited for lower-end fight, in order to meet “near- and long-term requirements.”
The announcement suggests the high-cost F-35s have failed to solve the problem they were created to address. While the program was intended to replace Cold War-era F-16 stealth fighter jets, the Air Force is already looking ahead.
