Badlands Bombing Range The Badlands Bombing Range ( BBR ) refers to Rapid City Army Air Base target ranges for World War II which included the current Air Force Retained Area , an inactive United States Air Force site " 20 miles southeast of Phoenix , South Dakota " . The retained area is the remainder of federally acquired in 1942 under eminent domain at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ( Oglala Sioux ) . In addition to use by World War II aircraft , BBR was used for a post - war Army National Guard gunnery range and a Cold War Radar Bomb Scoring site . Rapid City AAB ranges . Rapid City AAB aircraft ( e . g . , for Bombardier training used the Butte County # 1 Precision Bombing Range ( Newell Bombing Range ) North of the base , Rapid City # 2 Precision Bombing Range ( Pierre Bombing Range ) East , the Air to Ground Range of & East - Northeast , and the Air to Air Range Southeast . The " air - to - air and air - to - ground gunnery ranges " were on of the Badlands National Monument . Badlands gunnery range . Post - war the South Dakota National Guard " used portions of the bombing range as an artillery range " . Firing took place within most of the present day Badlands National Park # Stronghold District # Stronghold District with old car bodies and 55 gallon drums painted bright yellow for targets . By 2008 the National Park Service had placed an interpretive sign for " The Badlands Gunnery Range " . Badlands Bomb Plot . The Interior Radar Bomb Scoring Site ( callsign Badlands Bomb Plot ) opened in August 1960 on Hurley Butte ( ) adjacent to the Pine Ridge Reservation and a few miles from Interior , South Dakota to replace the Los Angeles Bomb Plot at Cheli AFS . Operated and maintained by Detachment 2 of the 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron ( initially by temporary duty personnel ) , the RBS site was 1 of ~ 14 that remained after the 1965 - 6 deployment of RBS site personnel for Vietnam Combat Skyspot . Family housing for the detachment " was on the western edge of Wall " , a nearby town , and barracks initially used for the station were shared by Boeing facility contractors for the Ellsworth Air Force Base 850th SMS ' s HGM - 25A Titan I ICBMs . Concrete pads at Hurley Butte remain from when the RBS equipment and personnel transferred to Holbrook , Arizona ( 1968 - 1993 , merged w / Det 19 Poplar MT to move to Det 4 Harrison AR ) . At the end of the Cold War , numerous nearby radar sites for RBS and electronic warfare simulation included those at the Alzada ( 2 sites ) , Ekalaka , & Hulett Mini - Mutes Radar Sites , the Clark & Colony Radar Bomb Scoring Sites , and the " Ellsworth Air Force Base " sites ( Belle Fourche , Colmer , & Horman Radar Bomb Scoring Sites and the Antelope Butte Mini Mute Radar Bomb Scoring Site ) . Decommissioning and environmental mitigation . After the Badlands Bomb Plot closed , in 1968 " the USAF declared most of the range excess property " and Public Law 90 - 468 restored control of to the Oglala Sioux Tribe ( OST ) - - the law ' s designation of " of formerly held Tribal lands " as the Badlands National Monument was protested by the OST . In 1999 at the " BBR 1 " target , " 40 M 38 practice bombs , 4 rocket bodies ( 2 . 25 inch SCAR ) or rocket warheads ( 2 . 75 inch ) , [ and ] 33 pieces of ordnance scrap ( mostly tail fins ) " were recovered . At the BBR 2 site used as an aerial gunnery target , 2 . 25 inch SCAR and 2 . 75 inch rockets were used and 28 " SCAR rocket bodies were recovered " along with 17 M38 bombs and 11 intact warheads from 2 . 75 inch rockets . A 2008 USAF & OST agreement initiated " a three - month $ 1 . 6 million project to remove unexploded ordnance " on the Air Force Retained Area which had an October 3 , 2011 , explosion of " the last four known munitions " .