No Range, No Air Bases: If Asian news media accounts are true, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told South Korean defense officials during a meeting last fall that unless Seoul could provide suitable air training ranges, the US would remove its air bases from the peninsula. US Air Force pilots stationed in South Korea have expressed dissatisfaction with the situation, and the commander of US Forces Korea told Congress earlier this year that US air elements do not have adequate ranges to ensure day-to-day competence in air-to-ground operations.
Officials at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., said the range is “fully mission capable” to support launches following a major May 28 mishap involving Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.