OCALA NATIONAL FOREST, FL — Every so often, visitors to Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest are startled by the shriek of low-flying military jets overhead. Little do they realize that the Navy F/A-18 Hornets may be bombing a mock-up desert village and runway just a couple of miles to the south.

The isolated, 5,700-acre Pinecastle Bombing Range has been used for military exercises since World War II. Few see it from ground level, but from above it looks like a giant crop circle of geometric shapes that include full-size military targets such as tanks, SAM missile batteries, vehicle convoys, airplanes, radar installations and residential buildings.

The bombing range includes 9 target areas, including this mock-up town made of cargo containers that resembles a village in the Middle East.



Each year about 20,000 bombs are dropped at the Pinecastle Bombing Range. Most are inert, but a few hundred are live. The range is located two miles west of SR 19, the nearest paved road.

F/A-18 jets fly in from the Jacksonville Naval Air Station and practice their bombing on the 450-acre center of the range. This target area includes a mock-up SAM site with entrenched missile pads.

The Live Ordnance Impact Area is used for 500-pound bombs, 30mm ball ammo and rockets up to 5 inches in size. The Main Bull consists of concentric circles ranging up to 2400 feet in diameter. A Conventional Dive Bomb and Rocket Target is used day and night on surplus vehicles and tire rings up to 600 feet across. In addition to a strafing target there is also a runway and a convoy of small vehicles.

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The site has its origins in the early 1940s when it was used by the Army to prepare for World War II. While the current setup resembles a Middle Eastern setting, the original site used a replica of a Japanese city and factory.

Originally, the practice range encompassed a much-larger area of more than 40,000 acres. In spite of environmental concerns, the Pinecastle Bombing Range continues to prepare pilots for combat.

Photos: Michael Warren