Area 51
The facility is not a conventional airbase, as frontline operational units are not normally deployed there. It instead appears to be used for highly classified military/defense Special Access Programs (SAP), which are unacknowledged publicly by the government, military personnel, and defense contractors. Its mission may be to support the development, testing, and training phases for new aircraft weapons systems or research projects. Once these projects have been approved by the United States Air Force or other agencies such as the CIA, and are ready to be announced to the public, operations of the aircraft are then moved to a normal air force base.
The intense secrecy surrounding the base, whose very existence the U.S. government did not even acknowledge until 29 September 1995, has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component to unidentified flying object (UFO) folklore. Everything that happens at Area 51 is classified Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI). This security policy ensures that only those insiders with a "need to know" have access to only the information they require, and ensures that outsiders don't know what they don't know |
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The amount of information the United States government has been willing to provide regarding Area 51 has generally been very minimal. The government explicitly concedes in various court filings, government directives and replies to inquiries, that the USAF has an "operating location" near Groom Lake, but does not provide any further information. Information on and photos of various past projects have been declassified however and are now available to the public.The base does not appear on public U.S. government maps; the USGS topographic map for the area only shows the long-disused Groom Mine. A civil aviation chart published by the Nevada Department of Transportation shows a large restricted area, but defines it as part of the Nellis restricted airspace. |
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The official aeronautical navigation charts for the area show Groom Lake but omit the airport facilities. Similarly the National Atlas page showing federal lands in Nevada does not distinguish between the Groom block and other parts of the Nellis range. Although officially declassified, the original film taken by U.S. Corona spy satellite in the 1960s has been altered prior to declassification; in answer to freedom of information queries, the government responds that these exposures which map to Groom and the entire NAFR appear to have been destroyed. Terra satellite images which were publicly available, were removed from web servers ,including Microsoft's TerraServer-USA, in 2004, and from the monochrome 1 m resolution USGS data dump made publicly available. NASA Landsat 7 images are still available (these are used in the NASA World Wind. Higher resolution and more recent, images from other satellite imagery providers including Russian providers and the IKONOS are commercially available. These show, in considerable detail, the runway marking, base facilities, aircraft, and vehicles |
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Unlike much of the Nellis range, the area surrounding the lake is permanently off-limits both to civilian and normal military air traffic. Radar stations protect the area, and unauthorized personnel are quickly expelled. |
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The guards are armed with M16s, but no violent encounters with Area 51 observers have been reported; instead, the guards generally follow visitors near the perimeter and radio for the Lincoln County Sheriff. Deadly force is authorized if violators who attempt to breach the secured area fail to heed warnings to halt. |
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Aerial imagery shows the airfield of Area 51 having seven runways including one that now appears to be closed. The closed runway, 14R/32L, is also by far the longest with a total length of approximately 23,300 feet (7,100 m), not including stopway. It appears to contain numerous cracks, the concrete slabs used in its construction having deteriorated due to the desert heat.The two active airfield runways are of asphalt construction, 14L/32R with a length of 12,000 feet (3,700 m) and 12/30 with a length of 5,400 feet (1,600 m), and four runways located on the salt lake. These four runways are 09L/27R and 09R/27L, which are both approximately 11,450 feet (3,490 m), and 03L/21R and 03R/21L, which are both approximately 10,000 feet (3,000 m).The control tower and a support building is located at adjacent to an access road in the taxiway area. |
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There is also a twin-ended hangar located in the taxiway area. It has one end for fixed winged aircraft, the opposite end for helicopters and what may be an area for personnel in the middle of the structure. It may possibly be used for alert aircraft.On the flight line are two open transient aircraft parking ramps, along with what appears to be a terminal/base operations buildings visible. A large number of vehicles are parked near it, likely being used for personnel transport around the base. The northern transient aircraft ramp appears to be used for single or twin-engine commuter aircraft; the southern transient ramp for larger aircraft. Imagery shows several Boeing 737 aircraft parked on the southern ramp. These are likely used for transporting personnel to the Groom Lake facility from other locations. |
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Halligan Mesa Radar Site is located approximately 15 miles northeast of Base Camp Airfield . It is an electronics and communications facility used for collecting data for Air Force testing programs conducted in the vicinity of the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) and the Nellis North Range
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