Nellis appropriations request for new runway

As usual, trying to find one thing you stumble upon something else. This page has some appropriations requests by Senator Harry Reid.
appropriations request

Here is the text in question:

Project: Land-able Airfield at the UOC (7,500’ landing strip)
Request: $ 3,000,000
Account: OMAFR
Requestor: 98th Range Wing
Location: Nellis AFB, NV
Description : The vision of Red Flag is to move the play of AFMC/SOF aircraft into the southern ranges so as not to interrupt the LFE vuls in the north. They'd like to have a landable airfield at the UOC to practice SOF insertion, combat landing etc. There is a dirt strip at the UOC but it's not suitable for landing. This initiative is to get the UOC airfield up to speed to meet the needs of Red Flag and for more realistic training for AFMC (heave) aircraft.

I'm simply amazed a request would go to congress with this much jargon in it. LFE is a large force exercise. The northern ranges is typically where the Red (bad guys) and Blue (good guys) mix it up. AFMC is Aif Force Mobility Command, basically the big cargo planes. SOF insertion I hope is obvious. The UOC is the fake desert city they have near the Nevada Test Site. It is sometimes listed as Gotham City.

If you watch the Red Flag exercises, they typically fly the heavies at the end of the exercise after the fighters RTB (return to base). They use the new Keno airstirp just east of the Tonopah Test Range for this purpose now.

My two cents? Just use the Keno strip and deconflict the heavies from the fighter aircraft. It isn't that unreasonable of a request and might even reflect real life.

Three million here, three million there, pretty soon you are talking real money.

Here is another interesting request:

Project: Spectral Area Receive/logging
Request: $225,000
Requestor: 98th Range Wing
Location: Nellis Air Force Base
Description : Enables identification and logging of all transmissions in a given spectrum. Logs the direction and frequency of received signals, and identifies counter-countermeasure jamming received by the MRECS system. Counter-Countermeasure data and signal identification data will be useful at mission debriefings.

Remember to turn off those cell phones when out of tower range. Unless you want your "pinging" to be detected.

The area that is used by red flag is so large and Nellis is on the very south end.

For years they have needed a emergency field for aircraft in trouble somewhere near the center of the training area plus this field would have clear approaches from all directions without conflict from having to fly over populated areas.
The areas outside Nellis have so may homes now that planes with problems can not fly over without endangering the public

reply to post by ANNED


There are two paved runways near the UOC, namely Creech and Desert Rock. The request is for a dirt runway, which would be similar to battlefield conditions. But they do that at Keno now. In fact, Keno was built because they didn't like the location of the Mellan air strip. Now the Mellan strip was in a stupid location for the exercises since it was in Red territory. They wanted something just inside Blue territory, hence the construction of Keno.

I suspect they want to do SOF training in a bit more private location. North or south isn't the issue.