Indoor Radar Cross Section Facility

Howland Company, which has done some work at Groom Lake, added a photo of the Lockheed Martin RCS Acceptance Facility in Ft. Worth (Texas). It is on this page:
Howland on the Lockmart RCS

This is a large image:



Now you will note this facility looks like a hangar, but the door is way off to one side. I presumable they have radar dishes on one side of the building, so they don't need hangar access to that portion.

You can see the Lockmart facility at
32°46'44.90"N 97°27'5.97"W
on Google Earth.

Now the new hangar at Groom, located at
37°13'43.14"N 115°48'38.90"W
on Google Earth has some asymmetry as well, but not as pronounced as the Lockmart RCS.

If you use the Google Earth "time machine" and crank it back to 11/13/2006, you can see the internal structure at the right side of the building (if you have north located correctly). This could be support for radar dishes for an indoor RCS.

reply to post by gariac

Not pretending to know anything specific about the new hangar, but it's a safe guess that if they're doing RCS measurements in there, they would be imaging measurements. These use much smaller antennas which wouldn't require anything unusual in the architectural or structural depts. As you know, the main RCS stuff is all at the other end of the base. There are some indoor RCS facilities up there in addition to the stuff we see in GE, but that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be some program-specific requirements for new measurement facilities down at the new hangar.

My interpretation is that the denser structure at the right side is for a multi-story aministrative/lab space. There are provisions for emergency egress for a fairly large number of occupants, so it looks like a lot of people are expected to be working there. On the other hand, the fact that the purported office/lab space shares a roof with an airplane hangar probably adds a lot of requirements to things like fire exits. Maybe all those exterior staircases etc. are for 6 guys and 2 greys... ;-)

Can you provide Google Earth waypoints of which buildings you think are indoor RCS?

reply to post by gariac

Um, that might be too much detail to share; but info that's in the public sphere--the building maps that are on other sites, your own panorama photos, and google results for images of host buildings for compact ranges--would allow someone to make a reasonable inference.

Speaking of other sites, I posted a note over there asking you to email me directly if/when you like. Just sayin'.

reply to post by GeorgePeck


Just a FYI, ATS has U2U messaging.

reply to post by gariac

You kids with your music and your hair, and your internets--so confusing to old farts such as myself. I shall learn about this U2U business...