A group of Republicans is seeking to reinstate protections for Florida’s Gulf Test Range after they were removed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The U.S. Air Force has demonstrated a lethal new weapon that could provide a low-cost and more widely-available alternative to sinking ships with traditional torpedoes. The new weapon, known as.
Stars and Stripes - After years of work, Eglin Air Force Base is getting a second F-35A squadron stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By JIM THOMPSON | The Walton Sun, Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. | Published: February 22, 2021 EGLIN AFB, Fla. (Tribune News Service) The Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range should get a slightly higher priority for upgrades than is currently planned by the Air Force, according to a recently released RAND Corp. analysis. The Eglin range, managed by the 96th Test Wing, covers 724 square miles of the Florida Panhandle and 120,000 square miles of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, stretching south to Key West. The range accommodates high-altitude supersonic air combat training, air-to-air missile testing, drone targeting, hypersonic weapons testing and space launches, among other testing and training activities, for an array of the military services.
The test range analysis focuses on the Air Force s own determination that few, if any of the service s existing training ranges can provide fighter pilots with the training needed to address the threats posed by near-peer adversaries.
The preface to the RAND study focuses on the 2018 national defense strategy that called for restoring warfighter readiness and moving the military from counterterrorism operations to great power competition, notably between the United States, Russia and China.
The preface contends that (o)ne element in meeting this goal is enabling units to train in an environment that is sufficiently representative of the threats posed by a major power.