FORT KNOX, Ky. — Yano Range at Fort Knox is filled with the sounds of construction and heavy equipment these days.
The third such range to be in existence in the world and the only one east of the Mississippi River when it is anticipated to come online next year, the Digital Air-Ground Integration Range at Yano will connect air and ground combat assets for a more comprehensive training experience.
According to range officials, steady wet and cold weather has hindered work on the range, though construction remains on track for a 2023 completion date.
“Weather has hurt us big time,” said Rodney Manson, Installation Range officer. “We’ve slid about 200 days because of it, including a very wet summer last year, but we’re still looking at an October completion date.”
Another factor for the contractors to contend with has been staying on task through the various COVID-19 variant outbreaks.
“They’ve had people miss work because of COVID,” said Manson, “so it’s all been a pretty good challenge.”
Manson said much of what contractors have completed so far or are in the process of completing is related to infrastructure: roads, target lanes, buildings and the targets themselves.
As of Feb. 9, contractors were busy improving existing target positions and digging out new sites. One of the latest additions is an infantry trench line, which contractors were carving out of the landscape and covering the floor with plastic coating at the start of February to prevent erosion.
Upgrades to existing positions will be made to stationary and moving infantry targets as well as stationary and moving armor targets. All target locations have either been upgraded to existing positions or are being newly constructed as part of the DAGIR concept, which will require considerably more target positions and configurations.
“With stationary armor targets, we can either have a frontal presentation or a flank presentation,” said Manson. “All those will have the different upgrades throughout the range.”
Moving targets will run on tracks protected behind a six-foot high concrete-reinforced wall. Manson the targets will be controlled by a team of personnel, who will work in a newly constructed tower overlooking Yano, at the site of the old tower. They will be able to fully control the moving targets, which can be rolled back and forth, stopped, raised and dropped at any point during a training scenario.
Other upgrades will involve revamping aviation training features, some of which also existed at the old range. Those targets pose a unique set of challenges.
“We have to be able to protect the target devices from an elevated firing platform,” said Manson, who explained that berms are used to protect target devices from ground forces but are ineffective against aviation rounds being fired from high above the ground. “Once you get an elevated platform, you have a different angle to worry about, up to 15-degrees or more.”
The aviation target devices, called arrowheads — so named for their shape are made of a special concrete, and the arm cants the target at an angle that allows for aviators to spot them and for the arrowheads to remain protected.
Cost is a big consideration in protecting target devices. As a for instance, stationary infantry targets — called SITs — cost around $6,000 each, said Manson. The DAGIR will feature approximately 300 of them for ground forces to shoot at.
With at least $52 million expected to be the price tag on construction and instrumentation to the 3,000-plus square acre project, operational costs are being weighed.
“We don’t want them destroying all the targets,” he said.
Once the infrastructure construction has been completed, other contractors will work on all wiring all the instrumentation together.
When completed, the diverse range of training capabilities of the DAGIR will make it highly sought after by units from Fort Campbell to Forts Drum and Bragg.
“Most ranges are built only for a ground platform firing at a target,” said Manson. “What we have to take into consideration here is also that aerial platform firing at a target.”
John Isaac, a range planner, put it another way.
“The DAGIR will allow ground maneuver units and attack aviation to coordinate, synchronize and engage targets on the same battlefield to maximize weapons training,” said Isaac. “They’ll have a collective task that all of them can train together on, like they’ll fight in combat.
“That’s what’s so unique about it.”
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