Message posted by crossair on February 15, 2021 at 14:05:07 PST:

I agree with your assessment. There is no point from a secrecy perspective. They will keep secret stuff away during Red Flag anyway, i.e. as the striker force is passing by pretty close alongside R-4808A. I assume it is not a punishment for flying over or into the airspace of a secure installation per se but to enforce discipline for real life combats never to fly into a declared no-fly zone (i.e. a highly threat-contested area) to ensure survival.

That said I really wonder what airspace test articles departing from Groom use during daylight testing. R-4808A is pretty tiny for a high-speed jet to stay in (except for going straight up). The base's F-16D often egress low level near Back Gate coming from Chalk Mountain heading towards Tempiute Mountain along Back Gate Road.

British test pilot Dave Southwood who flew the F-117 from TTR during night and doing his checkout from Groom during the day in 1986 was asked on that by Steve Davies but just mentioned that it was done in an 'operating area which was a prohibited area for others to go there' (whatever that means) before digressing to the Sheahan's and their mine (see interview in link, from 12:47min).

Also wonder where Tom Morgenfeld was circling with article 782 (FSD #3) on January 27, 1982 which lost the front wheel after t/o from Groom when he finalized his test runs while ground was evaluating the situation. Where was the forced crash area specifically located when they suggested to him to abandon the article and bail out (which he declined and landed safely)?

In Reply to: Re: R-4808A air space violation@Red Flag posted by Peter on February 15, 2021 at 13:09:29 PST:

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