The Air Force made a final $5.2 million offer to purchase private land within the Nevada Test and Training Range, which is inhibiting training and security, officials announced. “We are hopeful the family will accept our final offer to purchase roughly 100 acres of owned property and about 300 acres of unpatented mine claims,” Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Installations Jennifer Miller said in a release. “We understand the landowners’ connection to the land, but we must also consider the demands of national security,” she added. The range hosts Red Flag held at nearby Nellis AFB, Nev., as well as other combat exercises, tactics development, and system testing. “Mission cancellations on the NTTR due to incompatible land use cost millions of dollars per year,” said range commander Col. Thomas Dempsey. “These lost opportunities and delays result in increased national security costs to the taxpayer,” he added.
The X-37B spaceplane is heading back into orbit for its eighth mission next month, the Space Force announced July 28. Its latest flight will experiment with technologies that may prove crucial to the service’s future.