O&G drolling over Gulf Test Range

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – The oil and gas industries are “licking their chops” ahead of the 2022 ban on O&G leasing in the north-central Gulf of Mexico, which includes the military’s Gulf Test Range, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told defense contractors and professionals here Jan. 31 at an Air Force Contracting Summit. Protecting the range from O&G exploration “is my top legislative priority,” Gaetz was quoted by the Norwest Florida Daily News. O&G leasing is currently prohibited within 125 miles of the Florida coast under the federal Gulf of Mexico Energy and Security Act of 2006. The ban is set to expire in 2022. The Gulf Test Range covers more than 120,000 square miles and is used by a myriad of military units, including the 33rd Fighter Wing and 96th Test Wing from Eglin AFB, and the Air Force Special Operations Command out of Hurlburt Field. Air combat training, air-to-air missile testing, drone targeting, and hypersonic weapons testing are conducted within the range. He called munitions testing and O&G exploration “completely incompatible” and potentially dangerous. Eglin AFB is at the point of the spear of hypersonic missile development and testing. Its Air Force Armament Directorate is managing two contracted programs to design and build hypersonic missile prototypes. Gaetz says one of those contracts has a 2021 deadline for hypersonic missile capability. (NW Fla. Daily News 01/31/19)