Message posted by JB737 on November 17, 2007 at 7:17:02 PST:

I know very little about where missiles/bombs/ammo are made, how they are transported to where they are used, and what determines whether they are kept near or far away from the hangar of the craft they are delivered by. But for testing/development, I would think that close proximity of the ammo to the craft is definitely not a requirement, and perhaps not even a desirable goal.

But what I do know a fair amount about, is that every missile or bomb has a transport case/container or rack/pallet/whatever designed specifically to hold it.

New missile, new transport case. Maybe even: new application of existing missle, new transport case.

Typically, it will have both the contents' own designation, and the aircraft it is to be used in, stenciled right on the case, although I'm not sure if they do that when the existence of the weapon or delivery platform is secret.

Maybe it is as simple as: find the case, and find the (code?) name of the project/weapon/aircraft. Follow the federal bidding process for long, skinny transport cases, and you might glean some info. On the other hand, for small quantities on secret projects, they probably just give a nice quiet sole-source contract, and do the labeling in-house after delivery.

JB737

In Reply to: Area 51 Ammo Dump (speculation!) posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on November 15, 2007 at 9:07:49 PST:

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