Learjet Flights to Dugway Proving Ground

There is a mysterious Learjet (sort of) that ususally flies to DPG frequently. There based of out Cartersville airport. Think it has a missile-like looking pod on one of the wings owned by Phoenix Air Group.
Perhaps this may be like a Janet flight shuttling Government workers to Dugway?????
flightaware.com...

Heres another interesting field called Redstone. Sort of like Tonopah Test Range. Second link is also a PHOENIX AIR GROUP INC learjet.
en.wikipedia.org...
flightaware.com...

This one as well was going to Dugway....

reply to post by darpa999


Hi,

I had never heard of the Douglas Proving Grounds and I think a few others may not have either, but here's an interesting peice of its history:

On January 26, 2011 Dugway Proving Ground was placed on lockdown. Al Vogel, a public affairs specialist for the installation, would only say that the lockdown began at 5:24 p.m. Employees were not allowed to leave, and those coming to work were not allowed in. Vogel said there were no injuries, no damage and no threats reported at the proving ground. There were about 1,200 to 1,400 people at Dugway when the lockdown occurred. It was later announced that the lockdown was in response to the temporary loss of a vial containing VX nerve agent. The lockdown was lifted on January 27 following recovery of the material

From wiki

Also, from Utah News

The Army and civilian employees at Dugway conduct tests on systems to defend against chemical and biological weapons, as well as tests on smoke and obscurants. They also test meteorological devices. Several thousand sheep mysteriously died in Skull Valley in 1968, with nerve gas from Dugway the suspected culprit.

So you're right. There is something going on out there. Perhaps legit, but if we can find out a little more about the planes going in and out there might be more to this story.

Peace

reply to post by darpa999


That jet flies all over the nation. I think it is a rent-a-bogie.

Yah...Lears normally fly at around 41,000 feet, but due to the pod under one of the wings, they fly low like 34,000 feet.

And yes, if it were secret flights, then they would not show up on Flighaware either.....So it must not be secret flights...

Picture provided of the kind of camo'ed jet has a US Air Force symbol on the tail.

Phoenix Air Group military operations

Basically rent-a-bogie. The pod is ACMI, similar to what the Red Flag participants use. They often work out in the warning (W) areas off the pacific coast with the US Navy. Their website goes into other activities.

The company got labeled as one of the extraordinary rendition charters, but I'm not sure if that was ever verified via FOIA. Since the company is legit (as opposed to those rendition plane owners with fake names), I suspect Phoenix Air Group wasn't a major player in rendition.

Regarding Internet tracking, I have a list of planes that were blocked that I got from a FOIA request. (To be uploaded eventually). All the Lincoln Labs planes are blocked.

These are the Lincoln Labs (Hanscom AFB) blocked flight IDs. I know NTH4PA is N404PA. I guess NTN0NY is N20NY, NTH5TB is N105TB, etc. (N105TB a regular player at Groom Lake.) It shouldn't be that hard to match flight IDs with tail numbers.

Hascom Lincoln Labs blocked flight IDs
MTH0NY
MTH2MT
MTH3AR
MTH4PA
MTH5SA
MTH5TB
MTH8TB

Maybe that 'pod' is monitoring radiation levels from Fukushima.

a reply to: gariac

I came across Phoenix a few months ago, but they have been much more active than I expected.
A few(maybe more than a few) of Phoenix registered planes seem to fly commuter flights around R-2508 à la Janet.
The only difference is that these commuter plane destinations are almost always from one NAS to other locations throughout the R-2508 area.
I've definitely seen them touch down at Palmdale before.
ALOT of interesting activity at China Lake, especially around those RCS facilities...

a reply to: HomeyKXTA

Phoenix has had a contract with the Navy for as long as I can remember to do EW and target tow work for them. They sometimes tow targets for the Air Force as well. They would occasionally work with Big Crow doing EW work against Aegis hulls.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Thanks for the knowledge Zaph.
Can they now shuttle tow targets over metropolitan areas?
No disrespect with that question, it come off as brash, but was meant as an honest question.
one reason I didn't think it was a cargo supply route is
I didn't think transporting a target plane over such a densely populated area would be kosher, but I have no idea what the rules are.
These planes, depending on their destination (at least, according to flightradar24) will sometimes follow flight paths toward the coast, that take them over quite a bit of heavily populated civilian areas.
But like I said, I do not know what the rules are on this subject

a reply to: HomeyKXTA

The aircraft isn't the target. They carry a pod that trails the target about 2 miles behind the aircraft. Sometimes they use them for CIWS, sometimes for missiles although they canceled those shoots after an accident in Asia where the missile tracked the cable and ran up it and impacted the aircraft.

They did a gun shoot with the AF where the target survived. They were quite proud of that one. They didn't bring many back.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Appreciate the explanation. Now that I'm looking at their routes that I saved, they're much more thoughtfully plotted than what I noticed at first.

The U.S. Department of Defense Transportation Command awarded Phoenix Air a four-year competitively bid $23.5 million contract on March 24 to provide passenger and logistics services at three California military bases; Point Mugu Naval Air Station, San Nicolas Island off the California coast, and China Lake Naval Weapons Proving Facility.  Phoenix Air had previously twice won this same competitively bid contract beginning in 2005. Under the DOD contract, Phoenix Air maintains a fully-staffed base inside Point Mugu Naval Air Station, located 30-miles north of Los Angeles, where its pilots, flight attendants and maintenance personnel maintain and operate three Embraer 120 aircraft.  These 30-passenger aircraft move an average of 220 government employees daily between these Naval facilities, totaling over 37,000 passengers flown annually.

wbhfradio.org...

pods on planes

They routinely fly in the warning areas off the west coast. The pods don't leave the plane to my knowledge, nor am I sure how you would even shoot a pod. There is no live fire in the warning areas.

a reply to: gariac

The aircraft are equipped with reels that allow a target to be towed behind them. The target is either carried in a pod, or attaches to the side of it and is reeled out behind the aircraft. Depending on which target they're using it can be a cloth streamer, or a hard pod that gets trailed behind the aircraft. When they're done, they reel the cable back into the pod. They've changed somewhat since the last time I dealt with Phoenix Air.

Towed Target

Phoenix Air operates all over, not just the West Coast. Their mission changes depending on where they operate.

a reply to: gariac

Really appreciate this find Gariac, as well as the follow up info Zaph.
And Since we're on the topic of West coast charter flights...
Would anyone happen to know anything about the flights with callings beginning with "BYA" and finish with a three digit number?
No registration info provided.
Another one is "RTS" followed by 2 digits.
Both usually fly from San Diego(can't tell if it's the NAS in the north bay, or if it's San Diego international) to San Nichols or San Clemente islands.

originally posted by: HomeyKXTA
a reply to: gariac

Really appreciate this find Gariac, as well as the follow up info Zaph.
And Since we're on the topic of West coast charter flights...
Would anyone happen to know anything about the flights with callings beginning with "BYA" and finish with a three digit number?
No registration info provided.
Another one is "RTS" followed by 2 digits.
Both usually fly from San Diego(can't tell if it's the NAS in the north bay, or if it's San Diego international) to San Nichols or San Clemente islands.

BYA

Berry is old school mil charter. RTS is TBD!

Are you getting RTS on FlightAware? You may be able to catch the flight radio traffic on liveatc. It is often amazing the amount of OSINT you can gather sitting on your arse in front of a computer.

Companies in the past and may still be doing these mil charters are Vision Airlines, Sunset Aviation, Dynamic Aviation, and I'm sure many others. Sunset was bought and sold a few times. The used to have a TWY callsign which was pronounced Twilight. Vision Airlines is RBY and pronounced Ruby.

If you are really hard core, spend a few hours at KVGT (North Las Vegas) and KHND (Henderson). KVGT has a small parking lot for observation. North Las Vegas is well...North Las Vegas. I never felt in any danger in the lot, but trust me, stuff will be exchanged between cars in that lot. I was the only person with a scanner and binoculars.

KHND is another story. They best way to observe that airport is from a dog park east of the airport. You might get a raised eyebrow as the dork with a scanner, binoculars, and telephoto lens, but nobody will bother you. There is a drinking fountain and restroom nearby. The Army uses KHND often. Worse comes to worse, you will see some of the best high end private jets on the planet. It is astounding the high end iron using that airport.

a reply to: gariac

I'm going to be out in that direction sooner than later with some real R&R time. This will provide me with enough time to finally pull off some day trips that I've been itching to take. Hopefully the lady will agree to pulling "the gauntlet" and do a 5+ day trip going around the border.
KHND always caught my eye, but I assumed/reassured myself that most of the birds I was watching were chartered by celebrities, coke dealers, and naughty movie producers
Amazing how much FR24 can help you with treasure hunting... especially if you know what you're looking at.
Many thanks for the info once again Gariac.

a reply to: HomeyKXTA

4.bp.blogspot.com... g

Hopefully that crazy link will work. The plane is N8300F, photographed at Henderson. It is a Dynamic plane used by the US Army. There are Army helicopters photographed at Henderson, but I'm having trouble tracking them down. Too many false hits

Depending on wind direction, the Town Center shopping complex near Fry's has good photo of for Janet. You can shoot from the parking lot or from some 2nd story structure that escapes my memory. It never hurts to buy lunch in the shopping center and have a receipt handy in the event security gets over zealous in their job.

You can also shoot the Janets from the long term parking garage at McCarran. Amazingly I have never been bugged by security when photographing from that structure. The place is full of bicycle cops, but they don't seem to be concerned about photography.

originally posted by: gariac
a reply to: HomeyKXTA

4.bp.blogspot.com... g

Hopefully that crazy link will work. The plane is N8300F, photographed at Henderson. It is a Dynamic plane used by the US Army. There are Army helicopters photographed at Henderson, but I'm having trouble tracking them down. Too many false hits

Depending on wind direction, the Town Center shopping complex near Fry's has good photo of for Janet. You can shoot from the parking lot or from some 2nd story structure that escapes my memory. It never hurts to buy lunch in the shopping center and have a receipt handy in the event security gets over zealous in their job.

You can also shoot the Janets from the long term parking garage at McCarran. Amazingly I have never been bugged by security when photographing from that structure. The place is full of bicycle cops, but they don't seem to be concerned about photography.

Check out "Atlantic Aviation" as well.
Lots of traffic, but ALOT of flights that raise eyebrows