2011 Smoky Hill ANG Range Open House

Smoky Hill Air National Guard Range held an open house on August 6, 2011.

The range encompasses 51 square miles. That makes it the largest Air National Guard range in the nation. It also is one of the busiest. It offers several areas for aircraft to drop practice bombs and to fire guns. Smoky Hill ANG Range also offers several areas for ground forces to train.

Many different units will come through the Salina, Kansas area (the range is only 10 miles to the west) to train at the range. At least three times a year Canadian units will make the trip down before they deploy on combat missions.

The Open House gave the local citizens an opportunity to see up close the training conducted at Smoky Hills ANG Range. The range brought in F-16s from the Oklahoma and South Dakota Air National Guard, JTAC forward air controllers from the range, A-10s from the Air Force Reserve at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, B-52s from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, and an AH-64 from Fort Riley, Kansas to show off their skills.

Below are only a handful of the many pictures I took at the open house:

Click here to purchase prints of these pictures.