TONOPAH -- Nye County Commissioners will be notified of any military maneuvers over Pahrump, Yvonne Gresnick, deputy director of the 98th Range Wing at Nellis Air Force Base reported.

Nellis officials scheduled an exercise May 21, May 22 and May 24, when Pahrump was to simulate a town in Iraq. Nellis Deputy Chief of Public Affairs Mike Estrada said crews only practiced on two of those days.

Estrada said two Navy helicopters dropped teams of "insurgents" into Pahrump. The mission was to detect the enemy from the air, using cameras and automated tracking devices in F-15E aircraft.

"It appears the weapons school liked the concept of using Pahrump as training so we'll probably be doing it again in October or November," Estrada said. "We're not just picking on Pahrump. We've also done this in Caliente and Panaca."

Estrada said he fielded three complaints about the exercise from Pahrump residents, and the Nellis AFB command took several more calls. Air Force officials talked to Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis about informing county officials ahead of any future exercises.

While pilots have practiced extensively on air warfare in remote areas of the Nellis training range, the Pahrump exercise was designed to give crews practice targeting unfriendly foes on the ground in close proximity to friendly troops.

The current combat situation in Iraq and Afghanistan requires practicing support in both urban and rural environments, Maj. Sean Lowe, a 17th Weapons School instructor, said in a written statement explaining the exercises last month.

Jets were expected to fly at no lower than 9,000 feet at speeds of 400 mph to 500 mph.

"If you're going to have any more events in Pahrump at night let me know," Commissioner Butch Borasky told a Nellis Air Force Base delegation attending the county commission meeting in Tonopah. "A lot of people were upset with the number of events and what was going on."

"Commissioners will be receiving standard notification of anything that is happening at Nellis Air Force Base. We would like to see you in person but sometimes things happen quickly," Gresnick said.

"We should all be proud as Nevada residents, what we do for the military," she added.

Gresnick sought to impress on new county commissioners the importance of the mission at Nellis AFB to the nation's defense. She described a top-notch weapons school at Nellis AFB, similar to the Navy's much publicized Top Gun program at Fallon Naval Air Station. The Red Flag exercises are the ones most people are familiar with at Nellis, a program that began in the 1970s, Gresnick said.

"If a pilot went through eight or 10 combat missions his chance of survivability that he would live go up phenomenally," she said. The program simulates actual warfare, with one difference. "They're still stressed to that same level but they're not going to get shot down."

The pilot's maneuvers are recorded on videotape, which can be reviewed in a debriefing after the flight. Gresnick said they will review questions like, "What did you do that was good and what did you do that got you killed?"

Nevada has ideal conditions for air warfare training, Gresnick said: good weather and phenomenal cooperation from the state.

The 12,000 square miles of U.S. Air Force airspace sounds like a lot, but Gresnick said in an F-22 jet it only takes four and a half minutes to cross.

"Technology is shrinking the amount of air space we have available," Gresnick told commissioners.

Mobile threat systems are placed around the range, like surface to air missiles. The threats are more mobile now than back in World War II, she said.

Coalition forces are also interested in desert overland navigation, Gresnick said. During one exercise troops were dropped into a valley to find a certain point, a mission which turned out to be a success. The military is also trying to learn more about Humvees, which are stable but they can roll over in rough terrain, Gresnick said.

The Nellis range is vast, stretching from almost as far south as Las Vegas, up to Highway 6 near Tonopah. This summer, Nellis officials plan to rebuild the Cedar Gate road from Highway 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway, to Fallini's Ponds near Warm Springs.

Some of the information is classified, like the town in Iraq that Pahrump was supposed to simulate. But Estrada said interested Pahrump residents might be able to view the footage taken from the air during the training exercises.

"Our goal in the not too distant future is to take that pod video and do an informal open house," Estrada said.