THE INFLUENCE OF EXPLOSIVE SAFETY REQUIREMENTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AIR FORCE BASE MASTER PLANS

Safety clearance criteria exert considerable influence in the design of most Air Force Base Master Plans. Briefly, master plans are the official Air Force documents that guide the orderly and systematic development of Air Force Bases. They portray the geographical and physical characteristics in graphic form. The locations of existing facilities, space for expansion and provision of sites for future requirements are important elements of these plans. From this brief description, one can see that locations for explosives facilities and their attendant clearance requirements are important considerations in this planning. This is especially true for the storage of munitions where large quantities of high explosives are concentrated in one area and significant safety clearances are required. The safety clearance mandate for parked armed aircraft is also an important consideration, although the surrounding protective area is not normally as large. FIGURE 1 illustrates the inhabited building limitations for three separate hazardous areas on a typical Air Force Base. Within these areas, no personnel, equipment, or structures, are permitted other than those directly concerned with the operational functions. Areas 1 and 2 portray the inhabited building clearances required around explosives-loaded aircraft, while Area 3 shows the same for the bulk ammunition storage area. By comparing the size of these areas with the rest of the base, it is apparent that they occupy a considerable portion of the available real estate. The acquisition of real estate is a problem that confronts the Air Force at many large installations. Real estate is expensive, often hard to find and difficult to acquire. Neighboring communities expand toward these bases, hindering their growth capabilities. Increased business opportunities and the need for additional housing are the primary limiting factors. This condition is often further aggravated by the lack of adequate zoning controls. If conditions were ideal, the Air Force could envision future expansion requirements and plan accordingly. Experience has shown, however, that this is seldom the situation. Changing weapons systems, operational concepts, and base missions in conjunction with the difficulty of justifying land acquisitions for unforeseen requirements are major impediments. It therefore behooves the Air Base Planner to make the best use of his design ability to adapt to the circumstances at hand. With the exception of Southeast Asia and possibly a few other scattered locations, the Air Force is not presently developing any virgin sites. Our major concern is the master planning of existing hard-core installations and the expansion of existing storage facilities. This situation is ever prevalent at some of the Southeast Asia locations. Wherever possible, munitions storage sites are located near the base periphery, with sufficient adjacent open area to permit later expansion toward the main base. At locations where storage facilities can be sited in this manner, the future expense and time-consuming legal entanglements can be avoided. FIGURE 2 illustrates a good example of proper initial base planning. Ample space is available at the base for later expansion to the north and south without complications. The single hatched lines indicate the inhabited building clearances from the existing explo-