US Navy Pinecastle Impact Range
USA /
Florida /
Pittman /
World
/ USA
/ Florida
/ Pittman
World / United States / Florida
military, United States Navy, proving ground
The Navy's Pinecastle Impact Range in the Ocala National Forest is the only place on the East Coast where the Navy can do live impact training. The Navy drops nearly 20,000 bombs a year at the site, a few hundred of which are live. The Navy has used nearly 6,000 acres of the 382,000-acre forest for target practice for 50 years under a special use permit from the US Forest Service.
The Ocala National Forest is the oldest national forest east of the Mississippi and contains the largest forest of sand pine in the world. Located near Orlando, Florida, the Ocala National Forest receives more visitors than any other national forest in the Sunshine State. Millions of visitors annually escape to this forest, which is one of central Florida's last remaining traces of forested land.
The word Ocala is thought to be a derivative of a Timucuan Indian term meaning fair land or big hammock. The Ocala's vegetation lives up to its name, as you will discover towering palms, large live oaks and scrubby sand pines dominating forest's scrub oak ecosystem. Native to the Ocala, the sand pine is the only tree capable of growing to a usable timber size in this forest's dry, sandy soil. The Ocala's sand pine scrub ecosystem is the world's largest continuous forest of this type.
The Pinecastle Bombing Range is an un-fenced 5,760-acre area, with the eastern edge of the range located about 2 miles west of State Road 19 and the Camp Ocala campgrounds, and one-half mile west of the Farles Lake campground. F-18 jet fighters and other aircraft take off from Jacksonville Naval Air Station, fly low over the Forest, and drop their bombs in the middle 450 acres of the range.
More Information Available Here:
www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/pinecastle.htm
The Ocala National Forest is the oldest national forest east of the Mississippi and contains the largest forest of sand pine in the world. Located near Orlando, Florida, the Ocala National Forest receives more visitors than any other national forest in the Sunshine State. Millions of visitors annually escape to this forest, which is one of central Florida's last remaining traces of forested land.
The word Ocala is thought to be a derivative of a Timucuan Indian term meaning fair land or big hammock. The Ocala's vegetation lives up to its name, as you will discover towering palms, large live oaks and scrubby sand pines dominating forest's scrub oak ecosystem. Native to the Ocala, the sand pine is the only tree capable of growing to a usable timber size in this forest's dry, sandy soil. The Ocala's sand pine scrub ecosystem is the world's largest continuous forest of this type.
The Pinecastle Bombing Range is an un-fenced 5,760-acre area, with the eastern edge of the range located about 2 miles west of State Road 19 and the Camp Ocala campgrounds, and one-half mile west of the Farles Lake campground. F-18 jet fighters and other aircraft take off from Jacksonville Naval Air Station, fly low over the Forest, and drop their bombs in the middle 450 acres of the range.
More Information Available Here:
www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/pinecastle.htm
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 29°6'53"N 81°42'58"W
- Military Installation - Camp Blanding 110 km
- Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 116 km
- Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) 122 km
- Naval Air Station Jacksonville 126 km
- Cecil Field 127 km
- ICBM Row (Part of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station) 131 km
- Avon Park Air Force Range (KAGR) 155 km
- Weapon Storage Area 188 km
- Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay 192 km
- Fort Stewart Main Cantonment 309 km
- Farles Lake 4.1 km
- Sellers Lake 7.4 km
- South Grasshopper Lake 10 km
- Wildcat Lake 10 km
- Ocala National Forest 15 km
- Blue Island 18 km
- Lake George 23 km
- Lake County, Florida 34 km
- Marion County, Florida 39 km
- Volusia County, Florida 51 km
Comments