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Tinker Air Park on target with addition

  • Published
  • By Micah Garbarino
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The Maj. Charles B. Hall Memorial Air Park will install an explosive new display this month with the addition of the AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile.

The AGM 129 ACM is nearly 21 feet long, with a wingspan of 10 ½ feet. It is 2 ½ feet in diameter and when militarized, weighs in at 3,500 pounds, according to the Air Force fact sheet. The weapons system is delivered exclusively by the B-52 Stratofortress bombers. B-52H bombers can carry up to six AGM-129A missiles on each of two external pylons for a total of 12 per aircraft.

The missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and is highly accurate with a range of more than 2,000 miles. A decision was made in 2007 to retire the fleet. At the time of the decision there were approximately 460 in the inventory.

"The missile we are placing in the air park was a pre-production asset that had been informally used as a static display for at least one air show here at Tinker in the past and had been stored/used in our software lab facilities since 1994," said Mark Kassan, an engineer in the 498th Cruise Missile Sustainment Division, who is heading up the project.

Since 1994, Tinker Air Force Base has been home to the ACM program office responsible for the sustainment of the ACM fleet. This office is currently aligned under the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center headquarters at Kirtland AFB, N.M.

It was sent to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to be demilitarized and will be returned and installed at the air park as soon as a pedestal is in place.

The air park is currently inaccessible from Air Depot Boulevard because of ongoing construction to the Tinker Gate which is scheduled to run into 2011, but people with base access can visit the air park by using the gate located inside Tinker next to the commissary.

The air park currently has nine aircraft static displays and seven historical or memorial displays in the airpark. Future airpark addition plans include a Navy plane, said Jim Ruth, 72nd Air Base Wing Plans and Programs, and Tinker Air Park project officer.