The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the U.S. Air Force after it allegedly failed to release public records on a proposed expansion of military flights.
Those proposed flights would take place across the Gila Wilderness and in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico.
The center alleges the expansion would seek to authorize low-level fighter jet maneuvers and supersonic flights, which would cause sonic booms above rural and tribal communities, as well as important wilderness and conservation areas. Another concern, according to the center, is the dropping of flares as low as 2,000 feet above the ground.
The center says it first submitted its Freedom of Information Act request in December 2022.