Message posted by Uncle Aina on August 30, 2011 at 12:31:00 PST:
I wanted to share the little bit I know about the "black ops" site in my own backyard - the PMRF here on Kauai. Described as, "the world's largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range. US Military and subcontractors favor its relative isolation, ideal year-round tropical climate and encroachment-free environment. It is the only range in the world where submarines, surface ships, aircraft and space vehicles can operate and be tracked simultaneously. There are over 1,100 square miles of instrumented underwater range and over 42,000 square miles of controlled airspace. The base itself covers roughly 2,385 acres." So it's a pretty big cheese. I live on the other side of the island so I don't get over there all that often, but I have seen a few cool things worth passing along here. First off, the place cannot be described as remote, unless you mean the 3000 miles it takes to get here from the Mainland. The base itself sits only about 1/8 mile from the main highway as you can see using Google Earth. 21.00 58.29 N 159.00 22.00W They even open the base several times each year to the public…so not a lot of top secret stuff that you can see – but clearly a place where a lot of top secret stuff does go on. Mainly space weapons and electronic intelligence gathering is my best . Here’s another link with more details: Not much to it really, just a collection of bland metal frame buildings…kinda like Groom Lake. The main missile launch pad is at the far north end of the site. The runway to the south does not get much air traffic..almost none. Maybe 1-3 planes per day, unless RIMPAC is going on. A mile or so away to the NE located up in the mountains 2800 feet above the site is the Makaha Tracking Station with an X-band radar. There’s a lot of electronic goodies up there, as well as some optical tracking devices for the launches. They track stuff like the HSV-2 hypersonic vehicle there as it whizzes over the Pacific Ocean. Any time you hear a report that they plan to “bring the satellite down somewhere over the Pacific Ocean” what that really means is they are going to track it from Makaha as it lands on the PMRF range. The rumor is that they can track something the size of a coconut anywhere on the range using hydrophones, X-band radar, and electro-optical sensors. It’s probably a golf ball… I've witnessed several THAAD launches from the site. They close the ocean around the range and that's a sign that something's up. Usually they launch about 6pm on Fridays so all the folks who live on the West side set up lawn chairs along the road and wait...like 4th of July. Due to poor planning I’ve never made it down to Polihale Beach for a launch – there you should be able to be within 500 meters of the launch tower! In the past I’ve been about 1.5 mile away on the road. Sometimes they are launching the THAAD; other times they are launching the target missile and a ship-born THAAD is doing the killing. That bad boy is very fast and is basically gone from sight within about 4-5 seconds after launch. A couple years back when N. Korea was doing its long range launches they repositioned the THAADS to Kauai and deployed them. Now they have returned to the Mainland. I saw another launch by accident on August 3rd as I was up on the North Shore of the island…just happened to look up and see a rocket trail and what looked like a second stage or interstage deployment. In 30 seconds the trail was gone. In the news today was a story explaining the PMRF has been chosen to be the site of training for the Aegis missile defense shield called The Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex. So looks like there’s going to be plenty of activity out there in the years to come.. http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/military/article_99de5f70-d2e4-11e0-972e-001cc4c03286.html PMRF will never have the mystique of Groom Lake, nor does it deserve it really, but it does have a common theme of top secret/DARPA-ish stuff going on. Many projects developed at Area 51 head out over the Pacific, especially the fast ones, and then PMRF would definitely be involved in their telemetry and tracking. You get the feeling that the Pacific Ocean is considered a safe place to crash something secret. Kauai might even serve as a “speed trap” for projects like HSV-2. Sittin’ out here like Boss Hogg with our X-Band radar gun… “Breaker 19 we’re goin’ hypersonic boys! yee haw!” Finally regarding the name “Barking Sands”…legend has it that an old fisherman left his dogs out tied up out there when he got wrecked in a storm.. when he got back home the dogs were gone, but when he stepped on the sand he could hear them barking.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/pmrf.htm
Other interesting things I’ve seen out here include a Predator-like drone landing…which is pretty odd considering where we are. Not sure what it was doing, unless it was some type of training exercise. If you walk too far south along Polihale Beach, you can have a “cammo guy” type experience where a security guard will come out and stop you from proceeding further down the beach. If you sit near the boundary on the beach, they will simply sit there and watch you. They have proximity and other sensors and cameras located near the boundary just like Area 51. I’ll have to get some photos posted and we can compare the hardware.
Once I was out fishing on a boat in the BARSTUR range near Port Allen (where they so anti-sub warfare training) and witnessed something under our boat venting a huge plume of bubbles. Needless to say we got out of there pretty fast. Probably a sub changing depths…who knows. Man-made for sure.
So now when you walk on the hot sand you hear an odd “barking” of the sand grains…that is the howling of the dogs’ ghosts.
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