El Paso Times (El Paso, TX) July 21, 2004
OUR VIEWS; White Sands
Bomb testing shows range's importance
In the El Paso-area triumvirate of military bases, each has its own unique importance to the military and national security.
Fort Bliss is the Free World's center for air-defense technology and testing; Holloman Air Force Base is home to the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter; and White Sands Missile Range is vital for its research and testing facilities and capabilities.
White Sands is gaining another mission as the test site for the Small Diameter Bomb, supposed to be the Air Force's lightest and most-accurate bomb. It's 6 feet long with a diameter of 6 inches. The business end of it is a 50-pound high-explosive warhead and the entire bomb weighs in at 250 pounds, half the weight of the Air Force's current smallest bomb.
And it's expected to be very accurate, according to www.globalsecurity.org, with a "three meters circular error probable for surveyed target."
Testing of the bomb, which should begin this winter, underlines the importance of White Sands to this area and to the entire military and national-security picture.
As White Sands spokesman Larry Furrow pointed out, White Sands controls its own air space, has the requisite size and terrain, and has $13 billion in infrastructure. It's just what the Air Force needed.
This should be another testament, if one is needed, that White Sands is part of an El Paso-area military infrastructure that shouldn't be touched by the Base Realignment and Closure that's coming up in 2005. It is a vital part of a vital system, a facility that would be difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate elsewhere.
© Copyright 2004, El Paso Times (El Paso, TX)
