Re: What is being tested?


Message posted by Peter Merlin on January 22, 2010 at 15:07:01 PST:

The things being tested at Groom Lake are not necessarily intended to remain secret forever, at least not if they are to be employed operationally.

The fact that U-2 airplanes were operating from Groom Lake was announced by the government in 1957, if not earlier. The YF-12A and SR-71 were unveiled publicly in 1964 so that they could be tested more openly at Edwards and serve as a convenient cover for the A-12. HAVE BLUE was not going to be unveiled since it was just a technology demonstrator, but the F-117A had to be declassified in order to be integrated into the Order of Battle. TACIT BLUE and the Bird of Prey were declassified because technology from the projects had become industry standards and the companies involved probably wanted to showcase their capabilities in the defense marketplace.

Based on the growth of the facility in recent years, somebody thinks that Groom Lake is still a good place to test the latest innovations before they are made public. It doesn't necessarily have to be some mind-blowing new technology, just something sufficiently important to the national defense that it needs to be tested under secure conditions.


In Reply to: Re: STS-75 Incident posted by Josh on January 22, 2010 at 10:30:44 PST:

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