Established in 1941, the BMGR is primarily used for air-to-ground bombing practice by United States Air Force pilots flying A-10s from Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, F-16s and F-35 Lightning IIs from Luke Air Force Base and Tucson Air National Guard Base, and United States Marine Corps pilots and naval flight officers in F/A-18 Hornets, AV-8B Harriers and F-35Bs flying from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. It is also used by other U.S. and NATO/Allied/Coalition flight crews while deployed to any of the aforementioned bases for training. According to a U.S. Air Force spokesman, "The Barry M. Goldwater range is between Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma... As you take that geography and look at the military in those three cities you have roughly 20 squadrons that use the range day in, day out as their backyard range. When you piece all of the airspace together, it’s actually bigger than the state of Connecticut which makes it a real training treasure.” The entire range is approved for day and night operations with four controlled, manned, and electronically scored surface attack ranges that are available for training. There are three tactical ranges available spanning several hundred square miles each, and containing and two full-size airfield mockups. The area includes the Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field which serves as an emergency landing location for pilots and flight crews training on the ranges. The U.S. Air Force operates the eastern portion of the BMGR while the U.S. Marine Corps operates the western portion. The range was named after five-term U.S. Senator, Barry M. Goldwater from Arizona. Goldwater received a reserve commission in the U.S. Army Air Forces when America entered World War II. Following World War II, Goldwater was a leading proponent of creating the U.S. Air Force Academy. As a Colonel, he also founded the Arizona Air National Guard and eventually retired as a command pilot with the rank of Major General. By the end of his career, he had flown 165 different types of aircraft.
Despite warning signs along its southern perimeter in English and Spanish stating that the BMGR is U.S. Government property, that it is an active military bombing range and that unauthorized entry is prohibited, the BMGR remains among the treacherous access areas southwest of Tucson for Mexican, Salvadoran, and other Central and South American migrants illegally crossing into the United States, where many have perished. Aid workers trying to save people from dying have signed up for annual passes to access the BMGR, including a waiver of liability for live bombing, but some workers have been banned and threatened with trespassing charges, citing property policy that requires everything packed in to also be brought out. In August 2018, The Marshall Project reported in an interview on the progressivenews programDemocracy Now! about deaths on this dangerous and off-limits bombing area, where humanitarian aid - like food or even water - is impossible to deliver. Freelance Mexican-American investigative reporter John Carlos Frey said that a team from the volunteer search-and-rescue group, Aguilas del Desierto - “Eagles of the Desert,” discovered a dozen bodies in a small area they were allowed to search for two weekends, but fear at least hundreds more have died there, referencing the mass graves discovered in a Texas cemetery along a migrant travel corridor in 2014, but the government isn't allowing any further property search. However, resource managers at the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Defense counter that the aid workers degrade the environment and that the restrictions aren't new. All visitors to these federal lands, they note, already had to pack out anything they brought in. In 2020, crews were installing three-ton, 30-foot barrier panels along the BMGR's U.S.-Mexico border near Yuma, Arizona. Executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the barrier construction is in response to the Presidential National Emergency Declaration of 2019 requiring the use of the U.S. armed forces to help secure the U.S. southern border.
Popular culture
The range is the setting for §4, Part 4, in Don DeLillo's Underworld.
