Pilots would get 29 percent more elbow room and the base’s airspace would edge farther into Oregon and Nevada. If approved by federal officials, the expansion could pave the way for state-of-the-art aircraft like the F-35 at the base.

More importantly, according to 366th Fighter Wing commander Col. John Bird, the expansion would double the effectiveness of the airspace and the training offered in Idaho.

“We are starting to get customers,” Bird said. “It’s the perfect practice ground.”

An expansion would make Mountain Home comparable to Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base, Bird said.

A military study of the environmental impact of F-15 fighter jets going supersonic and dropping fake bombs is wrapped up. Mountain Home officials said they were able to assuage the fears of some ranchers in Nevada’s Humboldt County who feared low-flying planes would harry their cattle.

The proposed expansion, Bird said, is in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration, which typically takes a little less than a year to approve or kill such proposals.

The Mountain Home range complex covers more than 120,000 acres in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada. There are no-fly zones laid out — primarily over the Duck Valley reservation — and pilots must avoid low-altitude training in some areas.

The base’s F-15 pilots have the luxury of a training range just a left turn and three-minute flight from base, Bird said. A bigger range would allow the pilots to “lower the shelf” — or get closer to the ground at supersonic speeds — for their training and create more realistic scenarios as they prepare for deployments to dangerous parts of the world like Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea.

The expansion and the ability to accommodate low-altitude flying could make Mountain Home a more attractive finalist as a future training site for the F-35 or F-22, which are more modern and faster than the F-15 jets currently housed at the base.

The latest effort isn’t the first time military officials have sought to expand the range. Environmental groups and others helped scuttle a proposal in the mid-1990s. The Air Force had to retool and scale back the request, and it was approved years later.

Arguments to move remain the same as they were then: An expanded range would ensure viability of the air base, a major economic force in southern Idaho. For residents nearly 10 miles away in Mountain Home proper, the base is the heart of the city’s economy.

It contributes more than a billion dollars to the state each year, according to the military, and is Idaho’s second-largest employer behind the state itself.

Air Force personnel buy washing machines and eat in local cafes, gas up their cars and contribute to the community, said John Marshall, president of the Military Affairs Committee for the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce.

“We want the F-35s. This is the best place to put it,” Marshall said. “It means more houses, more construction, you name it.”