Nevada Test SIte EIS and expansion of Desert Rock Airstrip and the Aerial Operations Center

EIS = environmental impact statement

Aviation Work for Others.

Activities would include increased research, development, and use of aerial platforms at the NNSS. To support these activities, additional facilities would be required at Desert Rock Airport (hangars, shops, and other buildings occupying approximately 200,000 square feet) and the Area 6 Aerial Operations Facility (a hangar occupying approximately 20,000 square feet). Additional facilities occupying approximately 5,000 square feet may be required at other locations to support air operations, including testing of various types of manned and unmanned aerial systems such as small, remote-controlled, fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters. Research and development would be conducted with unmanned aerial systems to assess and mitigate operational safety and efficiency issues. In addition, unmanned aerial systems would be tested for a wide variety of potential uses, such as carrying sensors for collecting environmental data (e.g., multi- and hyperspectral imagery) to be used in digital environmental model development and for terrain analysis in arid and semiarid regions.

from this document:
NTS EIS

This is in the proposed expansion portion of the EIS, but given past performance, they just do what they want and ask for permission later if needed. [The only thing the DoD wanted to do on the range that got denied in recent history was the Divine Strake test.]

The expansion at Area 6 is probably the more significant part of the quoted text. This implies more UAV testing in this valley just to the north-west of Groom Lake. The expansion at Desert Rock could be related to other activities on the range, i.e. logistics.

The report also mentions that there will be military training exercises in Areas 19 and 20. No big shock really since there will never be high yield testing on the NTS again, or any explosions that involve critical mass.

Not really related to "bases", but here is an interesting little tidbit:

DOE/NNSA identified the U12g Tunnel for the activities of the Improvised Nuclear Device Program. If an improvised nuclear device were to be recovered, the tunnel would be used to stage, assess, and safeguard the weapon.

Now exactly you get the improvised nuclear device to this tunnel is a good question.

All the EIS documents can be found on this page:
EIS 2013

Thanks for the information garic, it's nice to see people out there researching and then taking the time to post it on here for everyone to see. Really appreciate the work you've done and posted on this forum.

Originally posted by gariac
Not really related to "bases", but here is an interesting little tidbit:

DOE/NNSA identified the U12g Tunnel for the activities of the Improvised Nuclear Device Program. If an improvised nuclear device were to be recovered, the tunnel would be used to stage, assess, and safeguard the weapon.

Now exactly you get the improvised nuclear device to this tunnel is a good question.
All the EIS documents can be found on this page:
EIS 2013

Not to hijack gariacs thread, but for those interested here is the location of the U12g tunnel entrance:
37°10'9.35"N, 116°11'37.80"W

For those interested, I have located a couple of documents relating to the NTS.
On page 7 of this PDF, the different areas of the NTS are listed and activities described, including Area 6
nnsa.energy.gov...

This document describes the U12g tunnel. Of particular interest to the "underground train(s)/tunnels" advocates is this sentence, "The underground complex consists of approximately 15,000 feet of tunnel."
www.hss.energy.gov...

I have created a KMZ file of the NTS, with the different facilities indicated. No guarantees on how accurate it is:
www.topsecretbases.com...

reply to post by FosterVS


And of course I'd like to point out that the NTS has these tunnels for a good reason: containment! And they are tunnels, not DUMBS. The soil around a tunnel helps to maintain its integrity. Large expansive chambers big enough to fight alien aircraft exceed what I would call a tunnel. ;-) Last of all, the tunnels have a bit of infrastructure on the top, so they are not really secret.

So that is less than 3 miles of tunnels over the entire history of the NTS. That is not quite like the so-called secret tunnel from Edwards to Groom Lake. My point is there is tunneling here and there or a bit of underground construction, but small scale.

Back to the AOF, it is a really hard place to view from off the range. But security on the NTS is not like Groom. For instance, we know routine Groom deliveries are handled by commercial truck drivers heading out to Gate 700. I assume AOF tests are coordinated around visitors to the facility. Otherwise, we would have heard about what they are flying.

reply to post by FosterVS


And of course I'd like to point out that the NTS has these tunnels for a good reason: containment! And they are tunnels, not DUMBS. The soil around a tunnel helps to maintain its integrity. Large expansive chambers big enough to fight alien aircraft exceed what I would call a tunnel. ;-) Last of all, the tunnels have a bit of infrastructure on the top, so they are not really secret.

So that is less than 3 miles of tunnels over the entire history of the NTS. That is not quite like the so-called secret tunnel from Edwards to Groom Lake. My point is there is tunneling here and there or a bit of underground construction, but small scale.

Back to the AOF, it is a really hard place to view from off the range. But security on the NTS is not like Groom. For instance, we know routine Groom deliveries are handled by commercial truck drivers heading out to Gate 700. I assume AOF tests are coordinated around visitors to the facility. Otherwise, we would have heard about what they are flying.

reply to post by FosterVS


And of course I'd like to point out that the NTS has these tunnels for a good reason: containment! And they are tunnels, not DUMBS. The soil around a tunnel helps to maintain its integrity. Large expansive chambers big enough to fight alien aircraft exceed what I would call a tunnel. ;-) Last of all, the tunnels have a bit of infrastructure on the top, so they are not really secret.

So that is less than 3 miles of tunnels over the entire history of the NTS. That is not quite like the so-called secret tunnel from Edwards to Groom Lake. My point is there is tunneling here and there or a bit of underground construction, but small scale.

Back to the AOF, it is a really hard place to view from off the range. But security on the NTS is not like Groom. For instance, we know routine Groom deliveries are handled by commercial truck drivers heading out to Gate 700. I assume AOF tests are coordinated around visitors to the facility. Otherwise, we would have heard about what they are flying.

Originally posted by gariac
reply to post by FosterVS

 

So that is less than 3 miles of tunnels over the entire history of the NTS. That is not quite like the so-called secret tunnel from Edwards to Groom Lake. My point is there is tunneling here and there or a bit of underground construction, but small scale.

That was the subtle hint I was making. Maybe too subtle.
Tunnels, yes. Huge DUMB or extensive tunnels for magic trains - no.

Thanks for posting this Gariac,

glad to see ATS still has some good sources of info ,

many thanks

snoopyuk