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.
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.