NASA, Navy sign agreement on carrier landings

The Navy has agreed to pay NASA nearly $2 million a year so it can practice aircraft-landing maneuvers at its Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore, officials said Thursday.

Using the NASA facility will allow the Navy to stop sending some Norfolk-based squadrons to Jacksonville, Fla., for up to two weeks at a time to practice landings at a Navy airfield there. The Navy has had to turn to the Florida airfield because a nearby one in Chesapeake is frequently over capacity. The use of Wallops Flight Facility is expected to ease congestion at the Chesapeake airfield and save on travel costs.

"We believe this partnership between NASA and the Navy provides the best services for the lowest cost to the American taxpayer," Bill Wrobel, director of the Wallops Flight Facility, said in a statement. 

Under the agreement, the E-2 Hawkeye and C-2 Greyhound aircraft will conduct up to 20,000 passes annually at the NASA site near Chincoteague Island and the Maryland border. The twin-engine, turboprop aircraft are quieter than jet aircraft and the Navy said in January the operations would have no significant environmental impacts.

Officials in Emporia, which is about 70 miles west of Norfolk, had also proposed using the regional airport there as a landing field. But many residents were concerned the noise would ruin their quality of life.

Navy fighter jets based in Virginia Beach will continue to practice landings in Chesapeake.

Joseph Murphy, deputy chief of staff for fleet installations and environmental readiness at the Navy's U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said in a statement the agreement with NASA helps ensure the viability of naval aviation in the region.

The $1.9 million the Navy will pay NASA annually will go toward upgrading the facility's airfield and conducting repairs. The Navy has also agreed to reimburse NASA for support services it uses during training.

The flights are expected to begin this fall after the Navy finishes making improvements to the airfield. Those improvements include construction of concrete pads, putting in place utilities to support a portable landing signal officer workstation and visual landing aids. The Navy is also installing airfield lighting to simulate the deck configuration aboard an aircraft carrier.

The landings are expected to occur in one- to two-week training periods over the course of a year, with a maximum of 28 weeks of field carrier landing practice training. About 120 Navy personnel could live in the area for up to 15 of those weeks to provide mission support.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/02//v-fullstory/3376529/nasa-navy-sign-agreement-on-carrier.html#storylink=cpy