Honolulu, Hawaii: Army Closes Makua Training Ranges and Cuts Oahu Leases by 19,500 Acres

The U.S. Army has closed the training ranges at Makua Military Reservation on the west side of Oahu and asked Hawaii to start closing out three state land leases, the Army announced on Friday, November 6, from Fort Shafter in Honolulu.

The closure took effect on October 1, 2026, according to the U.S. Army Pacific release. The Army is cutting its leasehold footprint on Oahu by 19,500 acres, including 5,900 acres of state leased land, as part of its land retention process.

The parcels

The Army told the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to begin the lease close out process for 4,390 acres at Poamoho, 782 acres at Makua Military Reservation and 700 acres at Kahuku Training Area. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that an Army letter to the state land board also proposed terminating the lease for the Kawailoa-Poamoho Training Area and partially terminating the lease for 3,000 acres at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii Island, as Hawaii News Now reported.

Ground training that took place on 3,406 acres of federally managed land next to Makua can shift to other ranges on Oahu, the Army said. The Army will keep using the airspace above Makua. Cultural access for Malama Makua continues without interruption, and wildland fire suppression work and security activity at Makua also continue.

A long fight over the valley

Live fire training at Makua ended in 2004, and the Army committed in 2023 to banning it permanently. In 2025, the Army committed to not pursuing any land interest on the 782 state leased acres at Makua through the retention process. Makua Valley, on the Waianae coast, holds Native Hawaiian cultural sites, and military training there has been contested by Native Hawaiian practitioners and coast residents for decades. The November 6 announcement turns those earlier commitments into closed ranges and a shrinking map.

Additional parcel returns for community benefit are under consideration as part of the retention process, the Army said. The release gave no dates for the close out steps, and the state's land department will run that process from here.

For Honolulu and the Waianae coast, the practical change is land coming back. State leased acres at Poamoho, Makua and Kahuku now move into close out, and the largest single block in the announcement, 19,500 acres across Oahu, sets the scale of the Army's smaller footprint on the island.