Who opened the Tonopah Test Range (aka Area 52)?

The Sandia National Laboraties!

* 1960 - Tonopah Test Range replaced the Salton Sea Test Base as the permanent range for field testing components and weapon designs.



Source: www.sandia.gov...

This was originally posted in my Dulce thread, but I wanted to clearly define this, so I felt it deserved its own thread.

See if anyone can guess WHY Sandia would open Tonopah? Would you expect that they would also open Dulce? Cosnider the history, folks!

Corrected because of unintentional misstatement, correctly identified by the contributors listed.

[edit on 20-6-2010 by Truth1000]

reply to post by Truth1000


I thought that, preliminarily, it went back to before 1960?

Ben Johnson...skunk works...ring bells?

Burbank factory...U-2. Flight testing? Not in Beautiful Downtown Burbank!

Tonopah Test Range is not Area 51

Lines sorry

Tonopah Test Range - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tonopah Test Range, also known as Area 52, is a military installation located
about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Tonopah, Nevada. ...

First, this is the ADMITTED history of the government's actions in the territory of the Tonopah area. It was for the purpose stated that so much land territory was claimed, and it was within that territory that the Groom Lake airfield had been first developed, and later "Area 51" was formed.

However, the Federal Government actually admits that the Tonopah Test Range (huge area) was claimed as a national priority area by the Sandia National Laboratories, and it will be difficult to find an earlier claim, by the Government, as to why they moved there.

The above posters are correct in their statements, even though I had a bit of a different direction in mind for later in the thread. I do want to make that clear - good work, guys!!!

The reason for this thread, however, was to point out to everyone that the functions at the Sandia National Labs was intimately related to the functions Sandia operates.

Sandia established Tonopah Test Range in 1957, but it has mostly transitioned to an Air Force facility since the 1980s. Currently, the Sandia range areas at TTR are staffed by approximately 113 personnel including 22 full-time Sandia employees, with the remainder being contractors who provide site support (security, maintenance and operations, medical, fire, rescue, and hazmat response).

In December 2008, the national Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) issued a Record of Decision (ROD) "affirming support for the test range as part of the complex transformation effort." The ROD calls for continuation of flight test activities at TTR, revitalization of some facilities and infrastructure, and possible changes to the footprint and operating model.

The Obama administration’s FY11 congressional budget request included mentioned TTR: “Funding in FY2011 also supports the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) in Nevada, providing unique capabilities to air drop nuclear bomb test units. These capabilities allow TTR to support DSW’s [Directed Stockpile Work] ability to perform surveillance testing on nuclear bombs and their compatibility with US Air Force bombers and fighters . . . .”

Since 1992, there have been more than a dozen NNSA and DOE studies to determine the feasibility of closing the Sandia portion of TTR altogether (presumably Air Force activities would be unaffected). Most studies, however, concluded that the flight test mission at TTR in support of nuclear stockpile surveillance is vital and that since TTR infrastructure is old and should be upgraded, the nuclear weapons flight-testing mission could be transferred to DoD and performed elsewhere.

The December 2008 ROD concluded that flight-testing would remain at TTR for cost reasons, paving the way for activities in support of the B61 nuclear weapon Life Extension Program. One Sandia manager has cited the “wonderful relationship” with the Air Force at the Nevada Test and Training Range, adding that "a new TTR business model may involve Sandia procuring some support services from the USAF when it’s mutually advantageous."

During the height of the Cold War, TTR conducted approximately 300 development and surveillance flight-tests each year and had five operating Sandia departments, each with a senior manager. As of 2010, Sandia conducts 12 to 15 surveillance flight-tests and two “work for others” (any work funded by an agency or entity other than DOE/NNSA) test series of four to six weeks’ duration annually.

Sandia managers are exploring the possibility of initiating a new business/operating model such as operating in a “campaign mode,” with a core of Sandia personnel assigned full-time to keep the range operational, supported by a cadre of Sandia employees and contractors to staff the site only during test weeks.

The Air Force operates the airfield at TTR. On 29 October 2001, the 98th Range Wing was activated at Nellis with the 98th Northern Range Support Squadron providing management oversight for TTR, Tolicha Peak, and the Northern Ranges and is responsible for "coordinating contractor support for tenant organizations, providing support to deployed forces, operating the TTR airfield in support of deployed forces and as an emergency divert base for fighter, bomber and transport aircraft flying on the range, authorizing airfield access, overseeing Northern Range operational activities (1.8 million acres), controlling range access, and providing initial response on-scene command for security, fire protection, environmental incidents and medical responses."

In September 2005, the 57th Operations Group activated the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at TTR. The 30th RS was charged with "developing advanced concepts and validating tactics, techniques, and procedures for integrating remotely piloted aircraft systems into the nation’s war fighting capabilities." This included development and testing the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel UAV that has been dubbed "the Beast of Kandahar" by observers.

Truly excellent post, Shadowhawk!

You see what happens when pieces start coming together. Sandia operates nuclear test functions at Tonopah, as well as nuclear weapons technology at their New Mexico sites, their Livermore, California, test sites, and their operations in Hawaii, at their Kauai Test Facility/Rocket Launch Range.

As might be expected, they have ties to launch functions at Cape Canaveral AFS, Flordia, and Vandenburg AFB, California. Especially in dealing with the early testing of nuclear ballistic missiles, they also play a role in RTG development and use. RTGs are the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators used in conjunction with many manned and unmanned launch missions.

Starting out from the "Z Division" at Los Alamos in 1945, they played at least a small part in the development of basically every nuclear weapon the U.S. has every made. A resulting program developing from the MANHATTAN PROJECT, to develop the first atomic bombs, they developed secret sites all over New Mexico. As such, Sandia is the source of many unique features of the U.S. Government projects in multiple areas of NM. Recall also that many of the German scientific teams captured as part of OPERATION PAPERCLIP were sent to NM to continue all kinds of secret research projects.

As an aside, the fact that all of this was going on when the infamous Roswell Incident occurred, in my opinion, is beyond the realm of chance circumstance.

However, look at how the input of a number of people over a fairly short time has created this framework for understanding how these seemingly unrelated locations and missions across the country, and out into the Pacific, are actually linked!

This is the kind of stuff we need to be doing here!

Because Dulce is something made up in the minds of conspiracy theorists.

Sandia definitely had a large defining role at Tonopah for years, especially with nuclear weapon delivery testing. There is an instrumented camera range where aircraft can drop "shapes" (practice nukes) and the entire drop is filmed from multiple angles

Area 52 (TTR) is just starting to come to light with many ATS members and local media out in Nevada. Nellis and Creech AFB's are just covers for the actions and events taking place in the no-fly zone of Nevada.

The "No Fly" zone in the image of the Nevada Test & Training Range is DREAMLAND (Area 51). The TTR airfield (Area 52) is in the orange block to the northwest at the upper left portion of the map.

Nellis and Creech have separate missions. They are not a "cover" for anything.

We have many people who will claim, with absolutely no evidence to back it up, that Area 51, the entire Groom Lake/Tonopah region was developed by aliens from another galaxy, or that we are flying ET craft out there, while there IS evidence of a number of technological centers that are using this area.

The Lockheed Skunk Works have flown the U-2s, SR-71s, HAVE Blues, F-117s, and maybe other projects, out there for over half of a century. Sandia has been out there since 1960. There are undoubtedly other programs and systems that can be documented to be utilizing these sites as well.

Why do so many people dis-believe clear evidence, in favor of baseless, opinionated, self-promoting reports from people who are unreliable at best, and clearly deluded at worst?