North America

Nevada Test and Training Range

Historical significance

The land was withdrawn for a bombing range in October 1940, and from 1942 Army Air Forces units trained on the Tonopah and Las Vegas gunnery and bombing ranges. [1] In December 1950 part of the range became the Nevada Proving Grounds, and the first nuclear test there, for Operation Ranger, was on 27 January 1951. [1] In 1955 the U-2 programme laid out a runway at Groom Lake, the site now known as Area 51. [1]

The range is where much of modern US air combat training took shape. Red Flag was first flown there in 1975. [1] At Tonopah, pilots flew captured and acquired Soviet-built MiGs against US aircraft in secret from the late 1970s, and from 1982 the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter worked up to service there, flying only at night. [2] The range took its current name in 2001. [1]

Forces deployed

• Nellis Air Force BaseNellis Air Force Base AirfieldThe Air Force's centre for advanced combat training: home of the Weapons School, Red Flag and the Thunderbirds, outside Las Vegas.: home of the Air Force Warfare Center, which runs the range. [1]
• Creech Air Force Base, formerly Indian Springs: flies remotely piloted aircraft on missions around the world, and is the Thunderbirds’ training site and one of the range’s two emergency divert fields. [3]
• Tonopah Test Range Airport: a 12,000 ft runway with more than fifty hangars, run by Air Combat Command. [2]
• Groom Lake, Area 51, on the range’s north-east edge. [1]
• Army air defenceAir defense GlossaryJoint terms: Defensive measures designed to destroy attacking enemy aircraft or missiles in the atmosphere, or to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of such attack.: sites east of the range host Patriot communications exercises. [1]

The range is landlocked, so no carriers operate in this theatre.