Photo By Brad Rhen | Col. Kevin Potts, Fort Indiantown Gap garrison commander, points out a feature at a...... read more read more
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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – A new training range and a sniper tower are under construction that will enhance training opportunities at the installation.
The range, a combined-arms live-fire, or CALFEX, range was built on an underutilized former tank gunnery range, and the sniper tower is being added to a existing sniper range.
Both ranges are situated at the western end of Fort Indiantown Gap’s training corridor between Blue and Second Mountains.
“This range and sniper tower will just add to the many diverse training options we have here at Fort Indiantown Gap,” said Col. Kevin Potts, garrison commander. “And the fact that we were able to build them with a relatively small amount of money makes it even better.”
Totaling more than 500 acres, the CALFEX range will allow elements up to company size to assault one or two objectives or set up a defensive position or ambush.
The land previously served as a tank gunnery range but has been underutilized since the Pennsylvania National Guard divested its tanks several years ago.
“The western end of the training area was a blank slate, and it’s just underutilized land,” said Lt. Col. Gordon Kinneer, Fort Indiantown Gap’s director of plans, operations, training and security. “We have a couple ranges there, but when those ranges aren’t used, all that maneuver land just doesn’t get used. So we saw it as an opportunity to get more usage out of it and build another capability.”
The need for a CALFEX range comes as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey gets set to become a mobilization center. Previously, most deploying National Guard units had to mobilize out of Fort Hood or Fort Bliss in Texas.
The range will be very similar to Fort Bliss’ CALFEX range, known as Range 50, Kinneer said.
“We’ve basically built Range 50 here at Fort Indiantown Gap to support mobilizations at Fort Dix, so units that mobilize out of Fort Dix can bus from Fort Dix to here, conduct their live-fire exercise here, and then bus back to Fort Dix,” Kinneer said. “It’s closer than Fort Drum, Fort Barfoot or Fort A.P. Hill.”
In addition to units mobilizing out of JBMDL, Pennsylvania National Guard units will be able to use the range as well. There is already a lot of interest within the 28th Infantry Division to use the range, Kinneer said.
“Historically, you could only achieve squad live-fire here at Fort Indiantown Gap,” Kinneer said. “There was no venue to do platoon live-fire. Now, we have basically three locations where you can do a platoon live-fire, and, really, it didn’t exist before we started developing the western end of the training corridor.”
The sniper tower is built out of shipping containers that have been welded together and shaped into rooms with different dimensions and configurations. Previously, the only option at the range was for snipers to lay on the ground.
The tower, which is 3 stories high and approximately 100 feet wide, adds more elements to the sniper range, Kinneer said.
“It adds elevation, it adds realism,” Kinneer said. “Yes, sniper teams can stalk through the woods, but they also operate out of urban terrain, and that’s what we’re seeking to replicate with that facility.”
Eventually, the roof of the tower will have various pitches so snipers can get training on shooting while laying on a roof to replicate real-world scenarios, Kinneer said.
The tower will also provide another facility for a brigade or a battalion to establish a command post while training at the installation.
“If a brigade or a battalion wants to exercise lessons learned from Ukraine and utilize a mobile command post or occupy austere environments to set up a command post, they can do that at this facility,” Kinneer said.
The sniper tower is expected to be completed around September, and the CALFEX range by Spring 2026. It is usable now, but only at the squad and platoon level.
“We are continually assessing what we can do to enhance training opportunities for units that come to Fort Indiantown Gap to train,” Potts said. “We do anything we can to ensure units are receiving top-notch training here.”
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.01.2025 09:56 |
| Story ID: | 494210 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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