Message posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on March 16, 2009 at 19:14:17 PST:
That is essentially correct. In the early days of Area 51, during the Oxcart program, the base was "owned" by the CIA and operated by various contractors. Lockheed Skunkworks was awarded the contract to develop the A-12 at the base. Contractors used to refer to CIA personnel as "the Customer". In more recent years the Air Force has officially taken over ownership of the base. But it is safe to assume that most of the development there is still controlled by the CIA, DARPA and a handful of other acronyms. Typically these agencies identify a need, put together a requirement profile, post the contract for bids, and one or two of the usual suspects (Lockheed, Northrop etc.) eventually end up being awarded funds to develop a prototype. When the time comes to test it, the contractors use Area 51, for its remote-ness and the existing infrastructure.
In Reply to: Re: Is Area-51 strictly government use? posted by Sam N. on March 16, 2009 at 18:32:26 PST:
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