Military AI Works

The latest Google Earth image of Groom Lake shows 5 F-16s with a space for a sixth. These are at the back of the hangers and paper to be painted in a dark material. Anyone know what unit they are from. I'm assuming the dark material is some form of radar absorption paint?

Darker than Have Glass?

John it's not clear what those aircraft are there for, intercept missions perhaps?? Could also be for chase duties for the X planes that are being tested there. To me I can see the standard two tone gray schemes on some of them so I don't think they necessarily special paint jobs. It interesting to see that the base is very much alive and expanding. I haven't looked at the sat image for a while and to me, the painted runways on the lakebed are new to me.

Those jets could also be there for pilot currency duty. Could be a lot of things but I've seen F-16s in the sat images there for many years. The aliens have to have something to fly!

Or they are there to escort captured UFOs So I could have a FP for F-16s from Nellis to fly there weekly?

Oh you humans, You didn't capture UFO's. We captured YOU.

I believe they are there for security, if Civvy planes get to close to the boundaries of Area 51 they are warned firstly but if they carry on the f-16s will go up and try to make them move away if they dont then they have a 2nd option of shooting them down!

I saw a documentary a while back where some guy was flying his plane very close to get a reaction from them! they sent up 2 F-16s to warn him off!

Much thanks

Mark

Thanks Mark, I'll do a FP for them. Can I PM you with a request for a quick repaint job please. Nothing fancy just a white a/c with a blue stripe.

VulcanDriver wrote:Can I PM you with a request for a quick repaint job please

Of course John!!

Much thanks

Mark

SG-19 wrote:Oh you humans, You didn't capture UFO's. We captured YOU.

Mkay... who else was, after reading this and then looking at the profile pic, freaked out a little?

At first I thought it was one of MAIW staff having a laugh but looking at the joining date I'm not so sure......

Greg wrote:Mkay... who else was, after reading this and then looking at the profile pic, freaked out a little?

Best..... profile pic..... ever.

Thank you it's my first ever what you call selfie.

Tranquil wrote:I believe they are there for security, if Civvy planes get to close to the boundaries of Area 51 they are warned firstly but if they carry on the f-16s will go up and try to make them move away if they dont then they have a 2nd option of shooting them down!

I saw a documentary a while back where some guy was flying his plane very close to get a reaction from them! they sent up 2 F-16s to warn him off!

Much thanks

Mark

Are them Detached F-16's from a regular unit, or permanent Groom Lake unit ? What's the tail code of these F-16 ?

As far as im aware they are based there! as for serial numbers! i will see what i can dig up! if anything!

Much thanks

Mark

I just did a quick search, and the serial numbers for three of the F-16's at Groom are supposedly 86-0052, 87-0383, 88-0152. All F-16D-30's. They apparently have the tail numbers, but no unit markings.

It sounds plausible, given that the spotter reports I just read all say that they've seen two seat F-16's. Haven't seen any pictures.

Chris

http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5523

Area 51 also has a few Pavehawks that are used for general security! back in the 90's they were Grey with a 2 tone Green camouflage, today i believe they are just grey! they park on the North Helicopter ramp!



Much thanks

Mark

Based on the serial numbers of pictures of HH-60s at and around Groom Lake, I believe that they are either on rotation out of Nellis or on paper assigned to the 66th RQS and based at Groom Lake.

Yup the serials of the ones that were there in the 90s are:

90-26222
90-26223
91-26352

these have obviously changed now but to what? again i am to believe they are based at Groom Lake..

Much thanks

Mark

I may actually be wrong about these helicopters currently being HH-60Gs assigned to Nellis. Ready for an interesting mystery? Four HH-60Us were built around 2011. If you don't know what an HH-60U is, you can be forgiven because not much exists on them. They were supposed to be the replacement for the HH-60G, but they kind of dropped off the radar. All new literature lists the HH-60W as the HH-60G replacement now. The thing is, at least as of a couple months ago, the HH-60Us still really do exist and are flying around:



They look like UH-60Ms built to Air Force specs with the new FLIR mounting and a hoist.

If you look up the HH-60Us you won't find much information on the, but you can find that they are on paper with AFTC Det 3. Det 3 of course being the unofficial designation for.... Groom Lake. Which kind of makes sense to put them out there on security detail since the full up HH-60Gs are needed to replace combat losses.

So... who wants to see some JYAI UH-60Ms painted in Air Force colors?

Sounds like fun to me. It would get at least one F-117 back flying in the sim as well for those who don't like retro.

Chris