2 weeks Ago
TOWNSEND, GA. — Unless you've been in the unfortunate position of being on the wrong side of the U.S.
Air Force, chances are that you have never heard the sound of an F-16 firing its six-barrel, 20mm Gatling gun. It's a sound not soon forgotten. On an otherwise average weekday, the F-16s in question were training at Townsend Bombing Range in southeastern Georgia.
The lead pilot approached the target zone from a low altitude, fired a burst and pulled up sharply before rolling the jet left or right to exit the zone as quickly as possible. The lead pilot's wingman swooped in and repeated the drill. This wasn't an air show with the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds showcasing their skills for a gawking audience.
These pilots were training to be highly skilled weapons of war. It was serious business. Even observing from a safe distance, in this case from atop the range's control tower, the cannon was devastatingly loud, maybe louder than the jet itself.
Firing away at ground targets at the rate of 6,000 rounds per minute, it was difficult to imagine anything within the pilot's gun sight surviving such punishment. That is, in essence, the point of Townsend Bombing Range, which is owned and operated by Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. It's there to ensure that the air crews entrusted with the nation's security and flying machines that cost tens of millions of dollars each can effectively eliminate whatever threat they face.
That mission dovetails with a responsibility to protect and care for the habitat of 33,000 acres. A target on the Townsend Bombing Range is riddle with holes in Townsend, Georgia, Feb. 25, 2025.
The range is owned and managed by Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and is used to train pilots in air-to-ground combat. "Everything is managed to support training. But even if we stopped training tomorrow, we'd still have to manage 33,000 acres," said Kevin Suitt, director of range and training area management at Townsend Bombing Range.
As the crow flies, the range is about 80 miles southwest of the Beaufort air station runways, though the pilots lifting off from those runways take a slightly longer route to the range. They head out over the ocean, turn south and fly down the coast, reaching the training area in just a few minutes. Its proximity to MCAS Beaufort is one of Townsend Bombing Range's principal selling points.
Located in rural McIntosh County, Ga., it exists to train pilots and ground crews in a variety of air-to-ground combat techniques, including close-air support and low-angle strafing. "It is the premier range on the East Coast.
It allows our Marines to stay local while they're getting their initial training. They learn to crawl and walk here. Then they learn to run out west," said Mary Krieger Ryan, spokesperson for the Beaufort air station.
Seen from the control tower, pink smoke marks a target for U.S. Air Force F-16s conducting air-to-ground combat training at Townsend Bombing Range in Townsend, Georgia, Feb.
25, 2025. The 33,000-acre range is owned and operated by Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and supports training from a wide variety of air resources. As evidenced by the presence of Air Force F-16s, training at the site isn't limited to Marines.
Pilots from Moody Air Force Base, the Navy's Carrier Airwing 7 and other bases around the region regularly train on the facility's seven active target areas, referred to as weapon danger zones. Each zone is configured to represent a different type of target. Shipping containers are combined to simulate buildings and mock ups of a train station, tanks, anti-aircraft installations, enemy aircraft and even infantry are positioned to give pilots a target-rich environment.
There are low-definition targets largely hidden by surrounding forests and high-definition targets more easily observed. Other targets, Suitt explained, are equipped with generators that creates a heat signature simulating anti-aircraft installations. "We have them outside the target boxes so the pilots can do threat recognition.
They're quite expensive, so we don't want them shot," Suitt said. A training bomb if found in one of the seven target areas within Townsend Bombing Range in Townsend, Georgia, Feb. 25, 2025.
The munitions dropped during training are inert, but do contain smoke charges to help pilot determine if they hit their targets. Much of the training takes place at low altitude. While there are live-fire exercises, the ammunition used is inert, meaning it's not explosive.
Even inert cannon shells are capable of doing a lot of damage. Holes the size of golf balls and baseballs punched through thick metal targets are proof that inert rounds are easily capable of ruining your day. Blue training bombs are scattered across the weapons danger zones.
Though they won't explode like an actual bomb, they do contain a charge to deploy smoke after hitting the ground. The smoke helps pilots and ground spotters determine how close the pilots got to the target. Those charges don't always go off, so visitors are warned not to get too close.
Explosive ordinance disposal teams regularly clear the bombs from areas. Those teams, both from the military and civilian law enforcement, also train on the range. A Marine Corps pilot from VMFAT-501, based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, demonstrates the capabilities of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II during the MCAS Beaufort Air Show, April 23, 2023.
Established in the 1940s as the 3,882-acre Naval Air Station Glynco Bombing Range, it operated until 1972. The range was reopened nine years later by the Georgia Air National Guard. Eventually ownership and management were handed off to the Marine Corps.
The range expanded from about 5,000 acres to its current size in 2017. A modernization upgrade for the site is underway. The upgrade will allow the use of precision guided munitions, which can't currently be used on the range.
MCAS Beaufort pilots deploy to ranges in California and Arizona to train with that type of advanced weaponry. This year's active fire season in the South illustrates why fire mitigation is Suitt's primary concern when it comes to caring for the property. The range is large, but people live, work and farm in close proximity to its borders.
Cutting and maintaining fire breaks on the range occupies much of the maintenance crews' time. Kyle Goleash, a forestry technician at Townsend Bombing Range, lights a fire for a controlled burn on the 33,000-acre facility in Townsend, Georgia, Feb. 25, 2025.
"We've got fire breaks around the ranges. We've got them around the installation. We've got them around the tree plots," Suitt said.
Despite the concern about fire, controlled burns remain an important land management tool on the range. Suitt's goal is to burn about 10,000 acres a year, though that number can be influenced by weather conditions. During a cool and damp day in February, crews were having a difficult time getting a planned burn started and eventually opted to give the forest more time to dry out before trying again.
The range is also a part of a more broad-based conservation plan to connect the ACE Basin to the Savannah River and then continue further down the Georgia coast. The U.S.
Department of Defense established the 2.2-million acre South Carolina Sentinel Landscape in 2023. It stretches through nine counties in the southeast corner of the state and abuts the Georgia Sentinel Landscape on the opposite side of the Savannah River.
It encompasses Townsend Bombing Range. DOD intentions to protect the operational readiness of its military installations within the Sentinel Landscapes exists in concert with land conservation goals. Habitat encompassing the 33,000-acre Townsend Bombing Range is actively managed by the staff from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, which owns and manages the facility in Townsend, Georgia.
"The connection of the range to the air station is important when viewed through a habitat lens. But in general, we don't want to have a high-density development in close proximity to our military installations to preserve future capabilities," explained Dana Bauer, coordinator for the SC Lowcountry Sentinel Landscape. "The beauty of the Sentinel Landscape partnership is that can cross state lines and look at the larger, regional landscape.
" The installation's mission statement warns that certain types of development could degrade training or conflict with activity on the range. Efforts to conserve the surrounding landscape a designed minimize that potential and keep the facility focused on its mission. "Not many people know that Townsend (Bombing Range) is owned by the air station, or what goes on out there.
There's a lot of other services that use the range, but it's also the backyard range for the air station," Bauer said..
