For the second time, the Massachusetts Army National Guard is seeking bids from contractors to build a scaled-back machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod — though the controversial project is still awaiting approval.
The Guard’s ad, which ran in the Cape Cod Times on Friday, July 19, calls for a contractor that can build a range with three shooting lanes.
Additional infrastructure would also be needed, including a “range control tower, ammunition breakdown building, covered mess, classroom, and storage,” according to the ad.
Earlier plans called for an eight-lane range, two of which would have been 1,500 meters long — roughly a mile — so soldiers could practice firing the .50 caliber M82 sniper rifle and the M2 machine gun. That design would have enabled the Guard to satisfy the military’s training requirements.
The three-lane range design, according to the ad, would feature 800-meter-long lanes, which would not satisfy the training requirements.

The Guard declined to respond to a request for comment. The ad calls for bidders to submit Requests for Information (RFIs) online by 10:00 a.m. on August 7, 2024.
After the Guard placed its first ad in 2023, two contractors submitted bids that each estimated the project would cost around $15 million, according to documents released to CAI. That’s significantly more than the $9.7 million Congress appropriated for the range.
In the new ad, the Guard estimated the three-lane range and accompanying infrastructure would cost $8.9 million to build.
But the Guard is facing a tight deadline. The $9.7 million is set to expire in September after U.S. Rep. Bill Keating and Sen. Elizabeth Warren successfully fought against a funding extension in the House and Senate, respectively.
Meanwhile, state officials who have the power to approve or deny the project have said they’re waiting for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize a report about the possible impacts of the range on the aquifer that provides Cape Codders with drinking water. A preliminary report found the range could contaminate the aquifer and create a “significant” threat to public health.
In a March statement, an EPA spokesperson said they could not indicate when the draft report could be finalized and sent — with a recommendation from New England’s EPA head — to Washington, D.C. If the EPA finalizes that draft, agency chief Michael S. Regan could effectively kill the machine gun range project by pulling federal funding.
Internal emails between the Massachusetts Army National Guard and the EPA, the National Guard Bureau, and other top government officials revealed Guard officials have challenged the EPA’s jurisdiction, and tried to cut the agency out of the process.