BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
The Hardwood Air-to-Ground Weapons Range recently refreshed several targets using excess property from the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services that had been deemed scrap.
Located outside Finley, Wisconsin, the range is part of the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center near Camp Douglas and has provided training opportunities for combat air crews since 1955.
“We’ve got five primary users here,” said Wisconsin Air National Guard Master Sgt. Gene Gebhard, operations supervisor for the range.
Gebhard said that the range supports Air National Guard squadrons from across the country, with five primary units from Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota.
Their customer list extends beyond those units. Squadrons from other military branches, both active and reserve, also train at the range, Gebhard said.
One of the pilots’ favorite targets, Gebhard said, was the “tank on the bridge.” However, time and well-placed rounds had taken a toll on both the target and the bridge.
“It had just gotten so dilapidated,” Gebhard said of the target. “It had been shot so many times it was about ready to collapse right into the water.”
That’s when the range team reached out to DLA Disposition Services’ Don Cassada, range acquisitions program manager.
Gebhard and his team explained their needs, including a replacement for the bridge.
“Cassada found some bridge sections for us,” Gebhard said. “But tanks are kind of harder to come by, and we thought that a Stryker probably looks more realistic to today’s adversary vehicles, and we wanted to do something that was more relevant.”
Cassada, who has 22 years of Air Force experience, said that his background gives him insight into adversary equipment, allowing him to suggest items comparable to what aircrews may encounter in combat.
“The equipment we send to the ranges has reached the end of its life cycle,” Cassada said. “It is no longer useful to the military services, there is no need for it in other parts of the government, there’s no use for it anymore it’s essentially scrap.”
“At that point, it is on its way to be cut up in a process we call demilitarization and sold as scrap,” Cassada said.
However, when worn-out equipment can be reused as a range target, it gains new value by enhancing aircrew training and providing a more realistic experience.
“And the aircrews, through their ordnance, are doing DLA’s job of demilitarization,” Cassada said.
Once targets like the “tank on the bridge” at Hardwood reach the end of their usefulness, DLA Disposition Services works with ranges to remove and sell the remaining material as scrap.
Referring to the new targets, Gebhard said, “It’s like a Christmas present. It has some relevance to it, you know, so it’s pretty exciting and very worthwhile for the training as well.”