Eglin welcomes new Range Control Complex to keep up in a changing defense climate
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE — Officials at Eglin held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday to celebrate the opening of two new Eglin Range Control (ERC) Complexes in a move that will consolidate resources across the vast military training complex, which encompasses 726 miles of land and sea.
"These facilities tied strategically placed instrumentation systems to enhance the 96th Test Wing's ability to provide expert evaluation and validation performance of next generation systems," said 96th Test Wing and Installation Commander Brig. Gen. Jeffery T. Geraghty.
Here is what we know:
What will the center be used for?
While both complexes are similar in construction, the two buildings hold a slightly different mission set to ensure testing can run successfully.
In ERC #1, personnel can manually control the various drones in operation either by air, land or sea and consolidate instrumentation control for various radar systems along the range. With each building having a dedicated fiber connection to other ranges along the Gulf of Mexico, information can be seamlessly shared with operators hundreds of miles away.
ERC #2 consolidates instrumentation and control from various telemetry systems and also monitors radio frequencies that could interfere with testing.
With the new facilities, Brig. Gen. Geraghty believes that the move will allow the 96th Test Wing to move in "lockstep" with the changes to ensure national security.
"Emerging next-generation weapons are outgrowing the capabilities of ranges built to World War II-era specifications," Geraghty said. "The era of dumb gravity-powered powered munitions is long gone. Testing the armaments of tomorrow under realistic conditions is important to ensure they will function as designed."
"These weapons have longer operational distances, autonomous flight, greater precision and the ability to operate collaboratively, requiring large amounts of land, water, airspace and complex instrumentation for tracking measures."
How did the facility come to be?
The new control centers were a result of the 2015 Federal Communications Commission auction of primary Department of Defense frequencies used for a wide range of testing from receiving telemetry from tests to piloting unmanned drones and targets.
With a spectrum relocation fund, the Air Force was able to upgrade all test aircrafts along with all aspects of the testing process, from transmitters and receivers to direction finding capabilities.
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"This will add flexibility and efficiencies resulting in cost savings to the DoD," said Alex Dalmata, the deputy for the 96th Range Group. "We celebrate the incredible achievements and give praise to a job well done."
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Eglin Air Force Base reveals two new Range Control Centers
