Staff Sgt. Ryan Gomez/US Air Force
The F-35 is a loud aircraft, and the people of Wisconsin are not happy about it.
A local congressman is again calling in a noise complaint on the stealth fighter, urging Pentagon officials to visit the state and witness for themselves just how loud the Lockheed Martin fifth-generation fighter jet actually is when it is flying overhead.
Rep. Mark Pocan sent a letter to the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, a DC-based agency within the Department of Defense that helps military bases work with their local communities, after the group denied funding for noise mitigation efforts for some Madison citizens, who Pocan says are plagued by the jet’s deafening Pratt & Whitney engines.
Truax Field Air National Guard Base, which is home to the 115th Fighter Wing and its F-35A Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters, is located in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation has funded DoD noise-mitigation efforts and even has an entire office dedicated to handling community noise issues from military fixed-wing aviation. The office offered Madison residents $50 million in fiscal year 2021, according to Pocan’s letter, “to make necessary modifications to their homes to dampen the noise and improve their quality of life.”
A recent similar request, however, for $18 million for other Madison residents was nixed.
Pocan said in his letter that “this effort would have allowed for better insulation in over 160 homes to help cushion the noise, as well as new windows or HVAC systems.”
A 2012 Vermont Health Department study found that F-35 jets reached a peak noise level of 115 decibels, or approximately the same noise level as a rock concert, louder than the F-16s the 115th Fighter Wing previously flew.
“Since the decision to place F-35 fighter jets at Truax Field in 2020, my office has repeatedly been in touch with the Department of Defense to express my concerns about what impact the noise from these jets could have on local residents, their homes, and local businesses,” Pocan said.
“In the years since, residents have reported consistent and significant concerns with the noise levels to my office, along with fears that prolonged exposure could lead to property damage or negative health impacts,” the letter said.
The congressman requested that the office send an official out to Madison to explain its rejection to the community in person.
The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on its planned response to Pocan’s letter.
It’s not the first time that noisy jets have made headlines in Wisconsin, where residents near the Truax Field Air National Guard Base have had to contend with the aircraft regularly since their arrival in 2020.
F-35s have also riled up other residents across the country where the advanced fighter jets are housed, disturbing residents in Utah, Arizona and Vermont, where some people have even reported panic attack-like symptoms in response.
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