Berlin - Germany dropped plans Thursday to redevelop a former Russian military training ground near Berlin after protests from residents and environmentalists. The German army and air force had asked for the forest and scrub-covered land in Brandenburg state, which was formerly used by the Russian army for target practice.
The air force and army, which have two smaller bombing ranges in other states, wanted more space to train bomber and artillery crews to improve their accuracy. The decision may increase Germany's need to use firing ranges abroad.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said in Berlin he was dropping plans to appeal against an administrative tribunal's ruling that low-level bombing flights there would be illegal.
The ground north-west of the capital is in Germany's "empty quarter" where towns and villages are few and far between and the population has been gradually declining since the end of communism in 1989.
Those who advocate nature tourism for the area said the screaming of jets and thuds of shells would scare off visitors. On July 2, the Bundestag parliament passed a resolution against the military development plans.
Campaigners had been demonstrating for 17 years against the project, which they dubbed the "bombodrome," on 14,000 hectares of the Kyritz-Ruppin heath near the town of Wittstock.
