{"id":10610,"date":"2025-06-04T14:50:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T14:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=10610"},"modified":"2025-06-27T14:52:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T14:52:38","slug":"lethality-precision-on-display-at-bollen-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2025\/06\/04\/lethality-precision-on-display-at-bollen-range\/","title":{"rendered":"Lethality, precision on display at Bollen Range"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Airman Austin Stern
175th Wing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. —
In a mountain valley of central Pennsylvania, two A-10 Thunderbolt II take to the skies. \u201cCleared hot!\u201d transmits over the radio. Then comes the unmistakable sound of freedom \u2013 brrrt \u2013 echoing across the landscape. The operations director for Bollen Range Air-to-Ground Bomb Range, Detachment 1 \u2013 part of the 193rd Special Operations Wing \u2013 communicates with the pilots as they undergo training exercises and showcase their power.

\u201cFort Indiantown Gap is an excellent place where [pilots] can utilize working with the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines in a joint force effort,\u201d he says. \u201cIt offers all-weather terrain in a restricted area with an excellent array of targets.\u201d

Airmen from the 193rd SOW manage range operations here by coordinating aircraft scheduling, supporting training and scoring efforts, maintaining communication with pilots, and ensuring safe airspace conditions throughout the area.

Cleared hot: The range<\/strong>

Bollen Range is a keystone asset for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard and provides a realistic tactical range environment for air-to-ground, airdrop and joint terminal attack controller training, ensuring combat readiness of flying units from across the services throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

“Besides the impact area and drop zones, we provide fighter and heavy aircrews with defensive threat reaction training using missile and threat simulators,\u201d said a Bollen Range operator.

Night, day and weekend operations are conducted at Bollen Range per the requests of the air and ground users. The range \u2013 located within a U.S. Army impact area \u2013 allows Air Force and other units from across the Department of Defense to train with Army artillery and mortar units, bringing added realism to joint operations.

Ground precision: Tactical Air Control Party<\/strong>

A notable feature of Bollen Range are the opportunities for the 148th Air Support Operations Squadron Tactical Air Control Party Airmen to train in real-life scenarios. TACPs are the critical link between ground forces and aircraft, ensuring that air support is delivered on time and on target during combat operations. Bollen Range \u2013 offering these simulated combat operations \u2013 allows TACPs to stay mission ready for real-life scenarios.

\u201cBollen Range is unique in that it allows us to conduct small-arms proficiency training while simultaneously controlling live-fly aircraft,\u201d says Master Sgt. Thomas Reno, weapons and tactics chief for the 148th Air Support Operations Squadron. \u201cThis facilitates a much more realistic environment for TACP personnel in preparation for combat operations.\u201d

Bollen Range additionally allows TACPs to train in close air support missions \u2013 the primary job of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers while training with aerial resupply and drop zone operations.

From the pilots<\/strong>

Regional pilots also use the range for vital live-fire training.

\u201cFlying at Bollen Range is a tremendous training opportunity to work on tactics that we use down range to combat enemy forces,\u201d said a Maryland Air National Guard A-10 Thunderbolt II A-10 pilot who trained here recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Airman Austin Stern175th Wing FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. — In a mountain valley of central Pennsylvania, two A-10 Thunderbolt II take to the skies. \u201cCleared hot!\u201d transmits over the radio. Then comes the unmistakable sound of freedom \u2013 brrrt \u2013 echoing across the landscape. The operations director for Bollen Range Air-to-Ground Bomb Range, Detachment  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":10620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10622,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610\/revisions\/10622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}