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The Venice missile launch complex was a Cold War Regulus missile firing installation [1] "adjacent to the Venice Municipal Airport" [2][ better source needed] on the Venice, Florida, beach. [3] Beginning in 1959, KD2U-1 drone versions of the Regulus were JATO-launched from the strip of beach in front of the airport, flew across the Gulf of Mexico for simulating a penetrating enemy bomber for test interception, and then were "recovered on the runway at Eglin" AFB. [4] The launch complex was one of several Eglin missile range facilities [5] (e.g., the Anclote Missile Tracking Annex near Tampa) [6] and conducted the "Regulus 2, KD2U intercept missile test [on] September 3, 1959" in which the "first launch of the Air Force's new Bomarc IM-99A missile [successfully intercepted] the Regulus 2 missile at 35,000 feet altitude and at supersonic speed" [7] (the Bomarc launch complex was at tbd after "BOMARC missiles arrived Jul 1958" at Hurlburt Field.) [8]
defense contractor Ling-Temco-Vought which in the late 1950s and early 1960s built and launched Regulus II cruise missiles from the beach directly in front of the Venice Airport
27°03′54″N 82°26′28″W / 27.0649°N 82.4412°W