95% of what’s dropped are dummy bombs, whether 2,000-pound concrete bombs or the far more numerous 25-pound BDU-33.
Photo: Michael Heape
An HH-60G Pave Hawk hovers above airmen from the 823rd Base Defense Squadron and 38th Rescue Squadron from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia during a medical evacuation exercise at Avon Park Air Force Range.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
SrA Vince Hill, from the 111th Fighter Wing, ARS Willow Grove, PA, mounts BDU-33 bombs on the bottom of an A-10 jet.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Targets at the Avon Park bombing range are old shipping containers, worn-out jets, dummy buildings, fake armored rocket launchers.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Soldiers train among mock villages. The range average a visiting unit training about every third day.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Concrete bombs encased in metal are recovered from the range during regular cleanups.
Photo: Michael Heape
"The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in combat. We try to make this as realistic as possible." -- Charles “Buck” MacLaughlin, operations director and former range commander
Photo: Michael Heape
Most of the range’s acreage is buffer land, home to unspoiled scrub and prairie habitat and 14 endangered or threatened species.
Photo: Carlton Ward Jr.
An anhinga (water bird) in Avon Park. The Air Force has funded 20 years of ecological research by Archbold Biological Station and employs four environmental researchers.
Photo: Carlton Ward Jr.
An airman secures a bomb at the Avon Park Air Force Range.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Aerial of Avon Park Air Force Range in Central Florida.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Staff Sgt. Cody McNorton and Senior Airman Joseph Flynn call in information during exercise Atlantic Strike Feb. 15, 2011, at Avon Park Air Force Range
Photo: U.S. Air Force - Senior Airman Amber Williams
A U.S. Airman assigned to the 147th Air Support Operations Squadron, 147th Reconnaissance Wing, Texas Air National Guard tests equipment during a close air support training exercise at Avon Park Air Force Range.
Photo: U.S. Air National Guard
A jet landing at the Avon Park Air Force Range in Central Florida.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgts. Eric Braddock, left, and Ryan Onely prepare a simulated casualty for a medical evacuation during a training mission at Avon Park Air Force Range.
Photo: Staff Sgt. Jamal D. Sutter, U.S. Air Force
More targets at the Avon Park bombing range.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Test bomb being dropped over Avon Park bombing range.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
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Avon Park Air Force Range - a photo gallery
The bombing range is in Central Florida.
An excerpt from the story, "Home on the Bombing Range," from Florida Trend's September 2014 issue:
It’s another day at the Avon Park Air Force Range, at 106,034 acres the largest bomb and gunnery range east of the Mississippi.
Beyond the concrete runway lie mock villages, a mock airfield, laser-guided weapons practice fields, helicopter landing zones and airborne drop zones. The range averages a visiting unit training about every third day. Depending on the day, you might find local law enforcement practicing emergency driving skills on the runway or helicopters training to shoot a moving target riding along a rail. Airborne troops might float down by parachute and call in an airstrike, or Army choppers may be firing Hellfire missiles...
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