On either side of the gate to the range stand Nike, Hawk, and Falcon missiles, interceptors made obsolete by the ones the artillery unit was practicing to fire.
They were all part of a mission rehearsal I witnessed in early 2014 at the McGregor Range, a 600,000-acre training area 30 minutes from El Paso, Texas, managed by the Army and the U.S. Razor wire, drawn weapons, and chemical suits add a “This is not a drill” atmosphere to what is, in fact, a drill. The radar blips, the plots of missile trajectories, and the tracks of anti-ballistic missiles screaming toward an intercept on the edge of space are computer simulations, made uncannily realistic by the millions of dollars of launch and radar equipment surrounding these control vans in the New Mexico desert. Someday, how these soldiers perform may make the difference between peace and nuclear war.
Soldiers of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade are watching, poised at radar, communications, and launch consoles in this dark room. The signature of a warhead approaching from space lights up the radar screen.
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