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 Pentagon is counting on Congress to navigate a legislative tightrope and pass a party-line bill to fund nearly a quarter of its $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, including billions of dollars for top priorities like Golden Dome, the F-35, munitions, and unmanned systems. Experts and lawmakers from…