New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine doesn’t want assurances of future improved safety practices, he just wants to close the Warren Grove Gunnery Range, where a New Jersey Air National Guard F-15 recently sparked a fire that engulfed 17,000 acres and led thousands to flee their homes. Corzine told reporters May 22, “We’re kind of in the three-strikes-and-you’re-out zone as far as I’m concerned.” He was including two earlier ANG-inspired fires in his three strikes analogy, but he also zeroed in on the errant round fired on an elementary school in 2004, which he declared would have closed the range “in a nanosecond” had it been done during daytime hours. The state’s two Senators—Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez—met with Air Force officials earlier this week to discuss the latest incident and the way forward. Air Combat Command is conducting an investigation.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
