Remotely Piloted Aircraft Simulator Facility to Open

Colonel Steven Garland, the 99th ABW commander, spoke to those gathered and explained the importance of the new facility to the base’s operations.

“This new simulator marks the first in a series of building efforts designed to optimize operations and increase security for our warfighters,” Garland says. “The new facility has almost tripled in size over the previous building, but more importantly, the location will enable more operators to get valuable training, which is very important given their mission pace runs 24/7, 365 days a year.”

Colonel James Hecker, the 432nd Wing and 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing commander, thanked Garland and the 99th ABW for the new building that was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“This will allow us to accomplish one of our priorities, and that’s to normalize our mission,” Hecker says. “More simulators will help us become more combat capable. In the future, we’ll also have the ability to do distributed mission operations, which will help us work with other units.”

Commanders were given a tour of the 13,500-square-foot building, which replaced a 5,000-square-foot simulator building. The project started in June 2009 and finished under budget at a final cost of $6,684,030.

Source: Rapid City Journal