‘Strongest, most lethal Air Force in the world’: Sullivan details ‘state-of-the-art’ training center coming to JBER
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - With a new $250 million - $500 million training center set to break ground on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in July, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said he expects the “state-of-the-art” facility will increase the Air Force’s training capabilities.
“It integrates both training and the very high-end, highly classified operations that we do at JPARC [Joint Pacific Range Complex] in terms of challenging our fifth generation fighters, in terms of integrating both real and virtual training missions” Sullivan, who helped secure project funding, told Alaska’s News Source. “And it will make our training facility here —which I already think is the best in the world — the premier training area probably on the planet.”
The 149,913-square-foot, two-story Joint Integrated Test and Training Center will house 426 computer servers — what U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leaders say will be the biggest central server at JBER, including a 15 mega volt amp substation to handle the building’s electrical demands.
“[It will be the] only place in the Indo-Pacific Command to host multi-domain simulators for joint and coalition fighters including but not limited to F-35s, F-22s, F-15s, F-18s, next generation, bombers, command and control platforms, intelligence surveillance, reconnaissance aircraft, and long range fires,” USACE Alaska Public Affairs Specialist John P. Budnik said in an email. “The JITTC will be an evolutionary building structure for JBER transforming the perception of the base and how buildings look and feel in the future.”
The project is part of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.
The center, according to USACE Alaska District, will also host squadrons of E-3B, C-17, F-22A, and C-12 aircraft, including the Air Force Reserve’s 477th Fighter Group, among others.
“[It’s] really, really important to be able to both integrate real world and virtual training, but also to test what we do already at JPARC,” Sullivan said. “This JITTC will help us do it much better, to test our capabilities, our vulnerabilities. And that’s really, really important to make us a more lethal force, to make our Air Force, in particular the strongest, most lethal Air Force in the world.”
Center leaders say it will consist of reinforced concrete foundations, a structural steel frame, insulated steel panel and masonry walls, and a standing seam metal and membrane roof to withstand cold weather conditions.
Budnik said the project is anticipated to be completed by the fall of 2029.
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