NEW AIR TRAFFIC CENTER PLANNED.Byline: Daily News EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - A new air-traffic center will be built to control aircraft in the 20,000 square miles of restricted air space in and around Edwards Air Force Base. The $4.5 million High Desert Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON TRACON Traffic Control TRACON Terminal Radar Approach Control , center will replace a facility in use for more than 50 years. ``Our objective with this new upgrade is to provide the best air traffic control services for the military operations that can only be found at Edwards and in this area,'' Air Force Flight Test Center commander Maj. Gen. Doug Pearson said at the ground-breaking last week. The nearly 19,000-square-foot facility will have state-of-the-art equipment that will be more dependable and easier to maintain, officials said. The construction, being done by Cox Construction of Vista, Calif., is projected to be completed in April 2005. The current TRACON facility will be used to help ensure there won't be a loss of operations until the new center is ready. Plans call for Edwards' Ridley Mission Control systems to eventually move into the facility to combine all Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control air space controllers. ``What this does for the AFFTC AFFTC Air Force Flight Test Center is give it a more dependable facility that isn't going to have any problems that could hamper us from conducting flight test missions,'' said Bill Shelton of the 412th Operations Support Squadron In the United States Air Force, an operations support squadron supplies all the necessary manpower and equipment needed to continue numerous operational tasks. An operations support squadron may dictate policy, train aircrews, and maintain airfields based on the missions of the . |
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