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Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake is 651,739 acres. Military land use is large.

To reference China Lake's land use as if it were anything remotely close to the median military installation is outright absurd and disingenuous at best.

Fort Bragg is 163,000 acres.

Military bases and ranges are big.

...which is atypically large even for the Army because of the sheer number of tenants it now supports after 2005 BRAC consolidation, including Pope AFB, and yet still relatively small land-wise compared to China Lake supporting ~10% the personnel.

I'm not denying that military bases aren't large---although I'd be willing to argue that the land is used quite inefficiently---but trying to pass the Navy's single largest weapons test range, or the Army's consolidation of 3 bases into 1 as somehow representative of the median is absurd.

It's not atypically large, it's not even up to the mean army base size, which is 189,000 acres: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56231

The land use is efficient for military purposes.

Firing ranging as defensive depth and simply space to keep people, eyes and ears away from training and equipment.

There are military installations in urban areas that use space effectively but a big spread out base is effective for its intended purpose of preparing to wage war.

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