Military Training Exercises in Galveston, TX

Galveston, TX is the next in line for more military urban warfare training. Interested in people's opinions on this, as there seems to be a whole lot of urban warfare training on U.S. soil of late. In just the last week or so alone we have seen Miami, Houston, and now Galveston. I had thought I heard that there was training in Minneapolis not too long ago as well? Makes me wonder if they are upping training in preparedness for civil unrest?

Miami Training

Houston Training

Galveston Training

The training that took place in Miami, and Houston were done with no warnings to the public and used blank rounds fired from the gatling guns on the attack choppers, which scared alot of unsuspecting people in those cities.

Anyhow, just interested in people's opinions, I believe it is all routine training, but would be lying if I didn't admit part of me is wondering why now?

Man they sure do have a hard on for Texas. I wonder why that is.

reply to post by Darkphoenix77


Where do you think they should train US troops? Ship them overseas to train? I really don't understand why people are freaking out about this. We used to do training exercises all over the damn place... It's just training man, that's all.

reply to post by cybro


If ever there is civil unrest. Texas will not be the path of least resistance. For one, it's huge, a lot of territory to cover. And second, it's one of the most mentally independent States we have.

Des

reply to post by Darkphoenix77


You really have to step back and ask yourself, why are they doing these training exercises over populated areas? There have been a lot of unexplained sonic booms reported lately as well. The military has taken credit for some of them. There hasn't been supersonic flight over populated areas for decades but now, all of a sudden, there is. Once again, why are they doing these supersonic flights over populated areas? More training exercises? Over populated areas? Suddenly our military decides to have urban training exercises and supersonic flights over populated areas. What are they preparing for?

reply to post by cybro


lol, maybe you should have added /sarcasm

Originally posted by Rezlooper
reply to post by Darkphoenix77

 

You really have to step back and ask yourself, why are they doing these training exercises over populated areas? There have been a lot of unexplained sonic booms reported lately as well. The military has taken credit for some of them. There hasn't been supersonic flight over populated areas for decades but now, all of a sudden, there is. Once again, why are they doing these supersonic flights over populated areas? More training exercises? Over populated areas? Suddenly our military decides to have urban training exercises and supersonic flights over populated areas. What are they preparing for?

My point exactly! It is just odd how they have had more of this lately in my opinion.

@ Billy As far as training here on U.S soil, yes I understand they do training here. It's not so normal however to do it in very populated cities is my point.

reply to post by Darkphoenix77


I believe that this is conditioning...of both, our military men and women and citizens. By flying attack helicopters down a Miami freeway and shooting off blank rounds, scaring the hell out of a lot of folks, they are conditioning the citizens, but they're also conditioning soldiers to fire in populated areas...desensitize them. It is interesting that it's the second one in Texas. If there is ever a revolution, it'll most likely be Texas that leads or revolts.

Originally posted by Rezlooper
reply to post by Darkphoenix77

 

I believe that this is conditioning...of both, our military men and women and citizens. By flying attack helicopters down a Miami freeway and shooting off blank rounds, scaring the hell out of a lot of folks, they are conditioning the citizens, but they're also conditioning soldiers to fire in populated areas...desensitize them. It is interesting that it's the second one in Texas. If there is ever a revolution, it'll most likely be Texas that leads or revolts.

Well, yeah it seems no coincidence that Texas is the most outspoken when it comes to dissatisfaction with the Federal government. Kinda scary stuff, when you think about the value of the U.S. dollar being in the toilet, and they way they keep printing it as if it is Monopoly money. If the dollar crashes and they are training in U.S. cities for a reason that is an outcome I do not want to think about. It is thier fault we are in the boat we are in with all the reckless spending and maxing out the credit cards.

In Miami it is routine they have been doing it since 2011 at the very least. You can find video footage of prior exercises on YouTube.

In Miami it wasn’t a Gatling gun it was a 50 Cal M2 and it was 7 rounds. The year before they used small arms and flash bangs if you see the videos on YouTube.

Originally posted by Grimpachi
In Miami it is routine they have been doing it since 2011 at the very least. You can find video footage of prior exercises on YouTube.

In Miami it wasn’t a Gatling gun it was a 50 Cal M2 and it was 7 rounds. The year before they used small arms and flash bangs if you see the videos on YouTube.

edit on 1-2-2013 by Grimpachi because: (no reason given)

2011 is only 2 years ago, still not ancient history. I do see your point though I did not know this wasn't a new thing. Still makes it a big question mark as to why when it comes to major U.S. cities? I guess in thinking about it though it makes some sense, would prolly not go over so well asking a foreign country "Hey do you mind if we conduct 'Urban Warefare Training' in (insert major foreign city here)?"

Originally posted by Rezlooper
The military has taken credit for some of them. There hasn't been supersonic flight over populated areas for decades but now, all of a sudden, there is. Once again, why are they doing these supersonic flights over populated areas? More training exercises? Over populated areas? Suddenly our military decides to have urban training exercises and supersonic flights over populated areas. What are they preparing for?

Actually there has been. The USAF owns several areas of airspace that are theirs to do with what they will. They can go supersonic, or not in them. One of the bigger ones goes from Marietta GA, to Knoxville TN, to Huntsville AL. Lockheed Martin uses that one a lot for test flights out of Marietta, but it belongs to the Air Force. There are a number of them throughout the country. The Air Force is also getting more land and airspace out in the Midwest for bomber training, so they don't have to go overseas, or fly thousands of miles to do training they can do in the US.

There's the R-2508 Complex in California that covers Edwards AFB, down to Barstow. This one includes supersonic corridors, bombing ranges, and other test sites.

So there have been supersonic flights over population centers, they just usually try to keep them to a minimum, and use more out of the way areas when possible.

Originally posted by Zaphod58

Originally posted by Rezlooper
The military has taken credit for some of them. There hasn't been supersonic flight over populated areas for decades but now, all of a sudden, there is. Once again, why are they doing these supersonic flights over populated areas? More training exercises? Over populated areas? Suddenly our military decides to have urban training exercises and supersonic flights over populated areas. What are they preparing for?

Actually there has been. The USAF owns several areas of airspace that are theirs to do with what they will. They can go supersonic, or not in them. One of the bigger ones goes from Marietta GA, to Knoxville TN, to Huntsville AL. Lockheed Martin uses that one a lot for test flights out of Marietta, but it belongs to the Air Force. There are a number of them throughout the country. The Air Force is also getting more land and airspace out in the Midwest for bomber training, so they don't have to go overseas, or fly thousands of miles to do training they can do in the US.

There's the R-2508 Complex in California that covers Edwards AFB, down to Barstow. This one includes supersonic corridors, bombing ranges, and other test sites.

So there have been supersonic flights over population centers, they just usually try to keep them to a minimum, and use more out of the way areas when possible.

I don't think the Air Force owns any airspace. The civilian authority of the FAA overrides the military, but they allow the military when needed to fly supersonic over 10,000 feet. However, the FAA has also granted a waiver to the military to fly at lower elevations under special circumstances. So yeah, the Air Force can fly supersonic when they wish, but its been common practice to limit this because of complaints from the general public. I am 41 years old and have only heard one sonic boom in my life. That was when I was around ten years old living in the northern suburbs of Chicago, an urban area around 1980. That's how rare they are, and that's the point I was making is that they are very rare over populated areas, but now they've been reported quite frequently.

If one doesn't think they are training for civil unrest (translated=us) one would simply be naive. This kind of training on American soil by standing military is unprecedented in our history. Standing military combat troops in active mission with no foreign threat or invasion on American soil is a first in American history. Police in joint training with the military. One would have to be almost an idiot to not see the writing on the wall.

reply to post by Rezlooper


They're called MOAs (Military Operations Area), and they are operated and maintained by the US military. They are considered joint use, because they allow VFR and IFR flights to be routed through them, but the military has the right to close them off during training exercises, and prohibit flights through them for safety of flight issues. They start at 1200ft AGL, unless lower airspace is required for training, and are usually located near an ATC center, so they can monitor flights around the area.

An MOA is a Special Use Airspace, meaning it's not technically prohibited or restricted, but it can be closed off at any time, if there is going to be a problem separating IFR traffic from military operations. You can see just about anything happening inside an MOA, from bombing, to missile shoots, to acrobatics, to ACM, to inflight refueling, and just about anything else.

In the high speed corridors they operate from sea level, to just about unrestricted. They try to keep the altitudes higher to keep noise complaints down, but a sonic boom travels hundreds of miles under the right conditions, so it doesn't really matter. You won't see them down at 500 feet going Mach 1, but they can go supersonic at any altitude they want to in a high speed corridor.


www.faa.gov...
aviationglossary.com...

reply to post by Zaphod58


I agree with you here. The military can do as they please, but the question is, do they fly these supersonic flights up and down these corridors on a regular basis, or are they quite rare?

reply to post by Rezlooper


It depends on the corridors. The one over Georgia, they hardly ever did, but the one out in California, I've heard at times there are a lot of flights in them, and other times of the year hardly any. And the one in Nevada is always busy during Red Flag and Green Flag.

Well, looks like Jasper County, SC can be added to the list. From what I have read this is training for another possible intervention in the middle east.

Jasper County, SC