home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Possible locations of classified military facilities
- ____________________________________________________
- by Paul McGinnis, December 24, 1994
-
-
- I've been thinking about an interesting question lately -- are there other
- places that are as classified as the secret U.S. Air Force air base at
- Groom Lake, Nevada, and, if so, how would someone know where to start
- looking for such a place?
-
- A way of finding classified areas occurred to me while studying Defense
- Mapping Agency aeronautical charts. On a floor, I had pieced together 3
- very large Tactical Pilot Charts (TPC G-18R, TPC G-19C, and TPC G-19D)
- By folding parts of the charts and aligning them together, I had managed
- to create a giant map showing the airspace over Southern California and
- Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and a little part of Texas.
-
- Looking at all the blue "boxes" used by our military for Restricted
- airspaces and Military Operating Areas (MOAs), I realized that I could
- find areas to study further by finding "boxes" similar to the one covering
- the air space around the Groom Lake facility. Hundreds of military controlled
- zones are listed in the DMA publication "Area Planning-Special Use Airspace".
- These are published once a year, with 2 supplements. I happen to subscribe
- to the Special Use Airspace publication for North and South America (DMA
- item number AP/1A). The most recent edition is dated October 13, 1994.
- (Defense Mapping Agency sources are listed at the end of this report.)
-
- I came up with some criteria that could be used in the search. I admit that
- these are arbitrary choices, but they allow one to discard most of the
- "boxes", thus narrowing the choices. My criteria are:
-
- (1) The area must have a ceiling of at least 60,000 feet (18.46 km) to
- prevent civilian aircraft from flying over the area. Also, this would tend to
- discourage military pilots who might get curious and try to fly above the
- prohibited area. (There are very few aircraft that can fly this high.) The
- area over Groom Lake has an unlimited ceiling, although one wonders how
- low orbiting satellites can be stopped from passing over the area.
- (2) The area must have a constant flying restriction, 24 hours a day, 7
- days a week. This eliminates a number of potential areas because flying
- is only prohibited by advance notice (NOTAMS), or during daytime hours
- on weekdays.
-
- This gave me the following list of potential classified areas of interest
- to the U.S. military. While I realize that some of these areas have flying
- restrictions because missiles are fired in these ranges, that still
- leaves other locations that need further research. Also, some of these
- areas are quite large. For example, R-5107B in New Mexico covers an area
- of approximately 4,500 square miles (11,520 square km.) although there
- may only be one highly classified activity in the "box".
-
- U.S. LOCATIONS
- ______________
-
- Area Number Description and comments
- ___________ _______________________________________________________
- R-2306A Yuma West, Arizona (Yuma Proving Ground)
- R-2306B Yuma West, Arizona
- R-2306E Yuma West, Arizona
- R-2307 Yuma, Arizona (there is also a tethered balloon on
- 15,000 foot (4615 meter) cables that carries a
- radar pointed south, used to detect drug smugglers. This
- is located near the northwest part of R-2307)
- R-2308B Yuma East, Arizona
-
- R-2501E Bullion Mountain East, California (Twentynine Palms
- Marine Corps Base)
- R-2501N Bullion Mountain North, California
- R-2501S Bullion Mountain South, California
- R-2501W Bullion Mountain West, California
-
- R-2502E Fort Irwin, California
- R-2502N Fort Irwin, California (also includes NASA's Goldstone
- facility).
-
- R-2505 China Lake, California (western part of China Lake Naval Air
- Warfare Center)
-
- R-2515 Muroc Lake, California (Edwards Air Force Base (AFB))
-
- R-2516 Vandenberg AFB, California
- R-2517 Vandenberg AFB, California
-
- R-2519 Point Mugu, California (U.S Navy - Pacific missile test
- range)
-
- R-2524 Trona, California (eastern part of China Lake Naval Air
- Warfare Center. Includes the "highly classified"
- electronic warfare facility, the Randsburg Wash Test
- Range, also known as "Sea Site I")
-
- R-2914A Valparaiso, Florida (Eglin AFB, Air Force Development Test
- Center (AFDTC))
- R-2915A Eglin AFB, Florida
- R-2915B Eglin AFB, Florida
- R-2918 Valparaiso, Florida
- R-2919A Valparaiso, Florida
-
- R-4806W Las Vegas, Nevada (Nellis Air Force Base)
- R-4807A Tonopah, Nevada
- R-4807B Tonopah, Nevada
- R-4808N Las Vegas, Nevada (R-4808N covers both the Nevada Test
- Site, and the Dreamland "box" around Groom Lake, which
- is the rectangular region in the northeast of R-4808N)
- R-4809 Tonopah, Nevada (R-4809 covers Tonopah Test Range, used
- for activities such as F-117 fighter testing and
- Department of Energy programs, such as nuclear rocket
- testing in the 1960s)
-
- R-5107A White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
- R-5107B White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico (I'm currently
- investigating something in this area that showed up
- on a satellite picture. This anomaly is east of
- Skillet Knob peak. R-5107B also includes Holloman AFB)
-
- R-6604 Chincoteague Inlet, Virginia (used by NASA's Wallops Island
- rocket facility)
-
-
- (the following locations might also be of interest -- they are "educated
- guesses" based on the nature of the location, or U.S. operations there.)
- OTHER LOCATIONS IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
- __________________________________________
-
- Area Number Description and comments
- ___________ _______________________________________________________
- SAP6 Puerto Belgrano, Argentina
-
- SBP-320 Itaborai, Brazil
-
- CYR204 Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, Alberta and Saskatchewan,
- Canada. (Well known for the large Maple Flag military
- exercises.)
-
- SCP3 Isla Dawson, Chile
-
- MUP1 Havana, Cuba
-
- MUP2 Bahia de Cochimos (I know a little Spanish and I think
- this is the infamous "Bay of Pigs" that U.S. backed
- Cuban rebels tried to invade.)
-
- (MU)P-1002 Guantanamo Bay Naval Airspace Reservation, Cuba
-
- MUP5 Santa Fe, Cuba
-
- MUP39 Juragua, Cuba
-
- SFP1 Falkland Islands
-
- MHP1 Toncontin, Honduras
-
- SUD8 Punta del Este, Uruguay (Curbuelo Naval Base)
-
- SVP2501 Carrizal, Venezuela
-
- SVP2502 Maracay, Venezuela
-
- SVP2521 La Orchila Island, Venezuela
-
-
- The DMA charts mentioned above (TPCG18R, TPCG19C, TPCG19D) are $4.75 apiece.
- The "Area Planning - North and South America - Special Use Airspace" is
- $5.50 for the main edition, or $10.75 per year for the main edition plus 2
- supplements (by subscription.) These items can be ordered from:
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Ocean Service
- Distribution Branch, N/CG33
- Riverdale, MD 20737-1199
- USA
- telephone: (301) 436-6990
-
- Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com / PaulMcG@aol.com
- http://www.portal.com/~trader/secrecy.html
-
- **********************************************************************
-
- Anonymous FTP access to files dealing with excessive military secrecy
- is available from Internet host ftp.shell.portal.com (IP address
- 156.151.3.4) in the /pub/trader directory. Read the 00readme files for
- descriptions of the files.
-