Adm. Frank Bradley on the need for “exquisite” ranges
Adm. Bradley, commander of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), told an audience of special operators and industry that the United States needs training spaces that mimic the complexity of modern, contested battlefields. He pointed to regulatory limits on electromagnetic spectrum use — “We’ve got all kinds of regulations here in the United States — and frankly, every nation does — to be able to control their electromagnetic spectrums and the interference that occurs,” he said — and singled out Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules as a practical constraint.
Bradley said, “The FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] here in the United States controls the altitudes at which drones can fly, even over our military bases and ranges,” a restriction that complicates rehearsals of “more sophisticated projections of force.” He argued that truly operationally realistic training will require ranges that are both technologically sophisticated and legally enabled to allow electromagnetic and aviation conditions that mirror contested operations.
Gen. Frank Donovan on SOUTHCOM’s training frictions
Gen. Frank Donovan, commander of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), echoed Bradley a day later at a Defense One event on the sidelines of SOF Week, describing live training problems in his theater. He said SOUTHCOM “doesn’t have training ranges right now that allow us to use these systems to any level of their capability.”
Donovan gave a concrete example: a base with a civilian road between launch points and the training area requires shutting traffic down and seeking “special approval” every time forces want to fly a drone across it. “We’re just struggling with that, especially when we want to train in that [communications] denied environment,” he said, underscoring how everyday domestic infrastructure and approval processes make contested-environment rehearsals difficult.
Regulatory choke points: FAA and civilian infrastructure
The two commanders framed the problem as both physical and legal. FAA altitude control over drone operations — “even over our military bases and ranges,” in Bradley’s words — and local civilian constraints, like roads intersecting training airspace, create repeated operational friction. The article notes that tension between the military and the FAA “are hardly new,” and that the Pentagon is “working with its federal agency partner to extend US bases more leeway, at least when it comes to base defense.”
Those lines of negotiation appear to be an immediate policy locus: commanders want authorities and regulatory adjustments that would permit more realistic electromagnetic and aviation conditions during exercises without needing ad hoc approvals for routine training evolutions.
Funding and policy: “expensive” ranges and stalled budgets
Bradley described the kind of ranges he envisions as “exquisite” and costly. He warned that the resources and authorities necessary to build and operate them are not in place, adding that SOCOM’s budget has “flat lined” since 2019. “These more exquisite ranges are expensive, and … they’re going to take new authorities and do policy adjustments to allow them to give us what we need to be able to operate this into a truly integrated force,” he said.
That sentence ties three concrete constraints together: limited fiscal headroom in SOCOM’s budget trajectory, the capital expense of advanced training infrastructure, and the need for policy authorities that would permit broader use of spectrum, airspace, and range capabilities.
How SOCOM and SOUTHCOM, the FAA, and operators are likely to respond
- SOCOM and SOUTHCOM commanders — expect continued advocacy for authorities and policy changes: Both Bradley and Donovan specified institutional limits to current training and directly linked solutions to new authorities and policy adjustments.
- The Federal Aviation Administration — will be a primary negotiating partner: The Pentagon is “working with its federal agency partner” to extend leeway around base defenses and flight operations; FAA altitude control over drones is a central sticking point cited by Bradley.
- Special operators and industry — will press for realistic rehearsal spaces: Bradley spoke to “special operators and industry” at SOF Week, framing the need for ranges where complex, electromagnetic and aviation-restricted maneuvers can be rehearsed without routine administrative interruptions.
The public record in these remarks is straightforward: senior combatant commanders see a gap between current domestic training rules and the kind of environments their forces must rehearse. They have named the constraints — FAA flight rules, civilian infrastructure, budget limits, and policy authorities — and signaled that resolving them will require interagency negotiation and fiscal commitment. Whether those negotiations yield the authorities, funding and policy changes the commanders described remains the concrete question now left to Washington and the agencies involved.
