List of Strange, Isolated Military Bases

is the B-1 still in the inventory??

reply to post by blackz28


As far as I know it is. We supposedly don't have a replacement yet...


Edit: btw what does ruler of the union Pacific big boys mean?

Originally posted by boomer135
Here's one of the flightline at Diego. KC-135's, a B-1, and notice the hangers in the back??? Any guesses?

They were for B-2's during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

I recall them from DoD B-2 shots from Diego Garcia.

reply to post by weavty1


Very nice! These b-2 hangers were put there before the deployment of the b-2 force to Diego Garcia after the start of Iraqi freedom. Guess they got tired of sending the bombers on 36 hour flights from Whiteman. The hangers are climate controlled and you can prob guess it takes more than your good looks to get inside. I got to go inside one several times but only once when the plane was actually in the hanger. Yes there are 24 hour guards inside and outside when they are here

Ive seen these exact hangers around the world in other places too. They aren't just pop up hangers either. There's even one in the NTTR somewhere as well but I'll let you guys find it ( hint: not at groom )

Yessiree! And here's a pic of the Pennsylvania while at DG







And the Hawaii, at DG...












And here's a few more of the XLDAHS (Extra Large Deployable Aircraft Hangar System), at DG..

(During Construction in 2002)


(After Construction)

reply to post by weavty1


Groom Lake has added a number of fabric and frame hangars in the last few years. Since money isn't an object with Groom Lake, I would guess they use the fabric/frame hangar because they can set them up without outside construction crews. They grub some desert to make a clean pad, then put up the tent. Wind is certainly an issue for Groom Lake, and I would guess DIego Garcia has similar issues.

Originally posted by boomer135
reply to post by weavty1

 

There's even one in the NTTR somewhere as well, but I'll let you guys find it ( hint: not at groom

)

Are you talking about the one at Creech? The storage quonset hut for the Trojan Spirit systems? Building 280? - That's not even close to the one that American Spaceframe Fabricators made for the B-2... In fact, it's only 2/3 the size of the one for the B-2

Very close though! But no cigar

Very interesting thread!

I've been fascinated by abandoned cold war military installations since I was a kid. I've wanted to write to write a coffee table book on them for years if I could find enough material. (Hey, maybe we could write one here?)

Back in the late 60's / early 70's my parents had some property in FL on Marco Island. This was long before it was developed into the metropolis it is now. On the very south west tip of the island there used to be an abandoned missile tracking station on what was then a remote part of the island. The area was known as Caxambas Pass, and there was some pretty good fishing right off that point. I spent many a day anchored just off that point looking at that eerie installation while fishing. It was fascinating to look at the old abandoned tracking antenna atop the tower and the surrounding buildings. I used to wonder what life must have been like to be stationed in this remote part of the 10,000 islands amongst the mangroves watching for whatever might come streaking out of the darkness.

Over the years it was progressively torn down piece by piece. I wish I'd had presence of mind enough to take a picture of it before it disappeared.

There's something about this period that brings about a mental image of everything being black & white. Almost as if there was no color (even though there was). I guess it has something to do with the level of tensions making one possibly ignore the colors and only see the form for what it was.

Whoa, double post, sorry 'bout that (not sure why it did that).

reply to post by weavty1

Wow that's pretty impressive. How were you allowed to take Pics? They wouldn't let us. Lol. Thanks for sharing!

reply to post by boomer135

Secret

reply to post by weavty1


Some of those photos are DoD released, but not all of them. I recognize the first one, only because I'm thinking "armed guard inside the hangar...pa-leeeese". So that photo stuck in my brain.

The DoD releases images and B-roll video here:
www.dvidshub.net...

You can set up searches to see media from specific units/wings/bases/etc. You can get the high res imagery by signing up. The B-roll video is usually HD.

Back to bases, there are civilian airports that the military frequents. Mojave is one of them. I've done plenty of drive through on this base, though I don't have all my photos up on the web. For instance, the photo of the Fedex plane with a special missile jamming pod. ;-)

www.lazygranch.com...

KVCV (Southern California Logistic) is a stop at times for planes under development there. GE does engine testing there with N747GE, which used to be based at Mojave. Boeing just ran their P-8 through KVCV today.
flightaware.com...

Marana/Pinal Airport does some military/contract stuff:
www.marana.com...
en.wikipedia.org...

Large airports have their rats maze of halls leading to beat down, er I mean interrogation rooms. That doesn't qualify as a base in the strictest sense. But during the Bush era, they were literally jumping people at the airport and rendering them to foreign prisons. Even though the foreign prisons are in theory closed, you have to believe some of the infrastructure is still present at the various airports. You set up the secure phones, rented the offices, no use undoing all that work. Security is like a ratchet wrench. Well more like a Harbor Freight cheap arse ratchet wrench. You can move it back a bit, but it won't reverse completely.

FBI offices are everywhere. Where they don't have offices, they have field agents. These offices weren't well known in the pre-internet era, but now you can look them up on the FBI "contact us" page.

Every embassy is a base of sorts. There are always intelligence officers using diplomatic cover at embassies, and the host country always has surveillance of the embassy, which itself is a base.

Very cool thread! S&F! I have always had a fascination with Diego Garcia. When I was little my dad worked for the navy and we were stationed in Gitmo..now that was way before the post 9/11 mess, and let me tell you it was an amazing place!

I have a lot of good memories of that duty station, they had an outdoor movie theater and you could take trips by naval ship to Jamaica. We had a lot of interesting animals there...banana rats(named because their poop was banana shaped!) geckos, wild goats, tarantulas, and these iguanas that hung out on the cliffs near the beaches. I could see the Cuban guard towers from the playground in my neighborhood...it was really weird because I never remember being afraid of them at all. We even had practice drills were we'd have to get our passports and get on a bus and drive to the ferry that would take us to the other side of the bay (windward or leeward I can't remember) then we'd sit and wait for a plane, then take accountability then be released to go back on the bus, go the ferry and then go home...it was so boring, all the kids hated it, we'd bring coloring books.

After our time in Gitmo, my dad considered a job in Diego Garcia, but he couldn't take the fam, so he turned it down to go to Germany. I'm totally happy he picked Germany, but he told me about DG and made it sound exotic, so ever since I've always wondered about it.

The military has all sorts of little places tucked away, and as another poster mentioned there are tons of cold war installations to explore. I spent some time in Germany visiting a few of the old posts that were no longer being used and it brought back a lot of memories for me, they are super spooky and cool to explore.

As far as active remote installations, I am not really familiar with too many, but I know we have Thule afb in Greenland and stavenger(sp?) in Norway....both which I'd like to visit.

Set google earth to
11°32'40.82"N 43° 9'24.44"E

With apologies to KC and the Sunshine band:
Shake shake shake
Shake shake shake
Shake Djibouti

Gee, nobody liked that secret US airbase in Africa, even though it had a visible UAV. Oh well.

36°27'31.34"N 76°12'31.09"W
This the security contractor or mercenary (your choice) Academi. It is an airbase and training facility.

I see on it that it says, "XE Services" on the coordinates 36°27'31.34"N 76°12'31.09"W you just listed.
XE as in Blackwater? Good find. Twisted things go on under the awnings of the XE group. They got blacklisted in Iraq back when they were Blackwater, so they changed their name to XE, and continue their obfuscated dealings and actions. So you say they've changed their name to Academi? That's unsettling. I wonder what they've done now.

Originally posted by Grifter42
Now, we all know about Area 51, and that whole Groom Lake deal. But there are other, more obscure ones.

Like for example, do you folks remember Bikini Atoll? Where we tested the atom bomb. Well, after the tests, the islands were rendered unsafe due to radiation. Some less than others, but it gave us an excuse to use them as military bases.

You ever hear of Kwajalein Atoll? It's an island in area. Used to be inhabited, still sort of is but high rates of birth defects and cancers. They used to use it for covert space launches, and I reckon they still do. Space-X has been launching things using the site. Wonder what it is they're launching. They also used it for the Star Wars Missile Defense Program.

You've got Diego Garcia, located in the Indian Ocean. It's a huge naval base and research center. There's nothing but sailors and a few isolated islanders. It houses a black prison where they house alleged terrorists. Every week is Chicken week at Diego Garcia.

You've got Lockheed Skunk Works, which is the corporate equivalent of Area 51.They developed the F-22, some of the first UAVs, and the Blackbird stealth plane as a black project.

Then on the other side, there's Boeing's secretive research facility, Phantom Works. They've developed such things as: the X-37, which seems to be an unmanned shuttle for delivery of air force payloads into orbit. They've got very high tech drones and seem to be on the cutting edge of technology. Who knows what they've got hidden up their sleeves.

I wonder what's in store for the future. They've got to be doing something with all the money they're putting in black budgets.

I've been to Diego Garcia several times. Not as nefarious as you think. It is owned bythe UK and they have a military presence there as well as part of BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territory) with the idea in international law of "if you don't use it, you lose it." We have maritime prepositioning container ships there as an asset and P-3's fly patrols out of there. (Freedom of Navigation and so forth). Nice place for a short detachement. Brit Marines cull the wild chickens every couple of weeks otherwise the place would be over-run with the dmaned things.

reply to post by NavyDoc


How about AUTEC, out in the Atlantic? There's a good naval site. Testing for unspecified undersea weapons and hydrophones. Nuclear submarines.. You know, if I were to manufacture an earthquake, or a tsunami, I'd think the seabed would be a good place to attempt such a thing. A warhead in just the right place... But I digress.
AUTEC is sort of like the NORAD of the sea, a place where up to it's neck in Naval personnel.