The Air Force officially opened the new Dakota Air Traffic Control Facility Aug. 20 on the grounds of Ellsworth AFB, S.D. after two years of planning and nearly $10 million in investment. The facility is the service’s first non-contiguous, co-located radar approach control facility, providing radar air traffic services both to Ellsworth and Minot AFB, N.D.—which are 265 nautical miles apart—along with Rapid City Regional Airport, Minot International Airport, and small airports within that airspace. “Our new location is unique to the Air Force because of the great distance between Minot and Ellsworth,” said CMSgt. Brian Lavoie, 28th Operations Support Squadron RAPCON chief controller. Nine air traffic controllers are relocating to Ellsworth to join Ellsworth’s 30 controllers. (Ellsworth report by SrA. Kasey Zickmund)
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
