Message posted by Joerg (Webmaster) (Member since 10/17/2000) on July 13, 2022 at 10:37:54 PST:
Monitoring Red Flag comms I noticed something I have never heard before: Two of the Red Flag adversaries, MIG 5 and 6, launched from and recovered to Area 51. I have seen Red Flag players fly out of TTR before, but NEVER out of Area 51. In fact for most Red Flags the Area 51 airspace is completely off limits. You can download the scanner audio of yesterday's sorties, recorded with an AirSpy Mini SDR that one of our members was kind enough to donate, at the attached link. For the day sortie MIG 1,2,5 and 6 are coordinating on the VHF Bluebird frequency 126.600, operating in the 70's ranges. Later MIG 5 and 6 land at Groom, using the standard Area 51 UHF control and tower frequencies. For the night sortie you can hear them launch from Groom, coordinate on 138.675 and then land at Groom after the mission. Why are they flying out of Area 51? I can think of two reasons: Either they are new foreign assets that are being evaluated during Red Flag or they are U.S. aircraft that for some reason are sight sensitive. There are lots of spotters with long lenses at Nellis. Thoughts?
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