I've been thinking about an interesting question lately -- are there other places that are as classified as the secret U.S. Air Force air base at Groom Lake, Nevada, and, if so, how would someone know where to start looking for such a place?

A way of finding classified areas occurred to me while studying Defense Mapping Agency aeronautical charts. On a floor, I had pieced together 3 very large Tactical Pilot Charts (TPC G-18R, TPC G-19C, and TPC G-19D) By folding parts of the charts and aligning them together, I had managed to create a giant map showing the airspace over Southern California and Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and a little part of Texas.

Looking at all the blue "boxes" used by our military for Restricted airspaces and Military Operating Areas (MOAs), I realized that I could find areas to study further by finding "boxes" similar to the one covering the air space around the Groom Lake facility. Hundreds of military controlled zones are listed in the DMA publication Area Planning-Special Use Airspace. These are published once a year, with 2 supplements. I happen to subscribe to the Special Use Airspace publication for North and South America (DMA item number AP/1A). The most recent edition is dated October 13, 1994. (Defense Mapping Agency sources are listed at the end of this report.)

I came up with some criteria that could be used in the search. I admit that these are arbitrary choices, but they allow one to discard most of the "boxes", thus narrowing the choices. My criteria are:
(1) The area must have a ceiling of at least 60,000 feet (18.46 km) to prevent civilian aircraft from flying over the area. Also, this would tend to discourage military pilots who might get curious and try to fly above the prohibited area. (There are very few aircraft that can fly this high.) The area over Groom Lake has an unlimited ceiling, although one wonders how low orbiting satellites can be stopped from passing over the area.
(2) The area must have a constant flying restriction, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This eliminates a number of potential areas because flying is only prohibited by advance notice (NOTAMS), or during daytime hours on weekdays.

This gave me the following list of potential classified areas of interest to the U.S. military. While I realize that some of these areas have flying restrictions because missiles are fired in these ranges, that still leaves other locations that need further research. Also, some of these areas are quite large. For example, R-5107B in New Mexico covers an area of approximately 4,500 square miles (11,520 square km.) although there may only be one highly classified activity in the "box".

U.S. LOCATIONS

Area Number       Description and comments
___________       _______________________________________________________
R-2306A           Yuma West, Arizona (Yuma Proving Ground)
R-2306B           Yuma West, Arizona
R-2306E           Yuma West, Arizona
R-2307            Yuma, Arizona (there is also a tethered balloon on
                    15,000 foot (4615 meter) cables that carries a
                    radar pointed south, used to detect drug smugglers. This
                    is located near the northwest part of R-2307)
R-2308B           Yuma East, Arizona

R-2501E           Bullion Mountain East, California (Twentynine Palms
                    Marine Corps Base)
R-2501N           Bullion Mountain North, California
R-2501S           Bullion Mountain South, California
R-2501W           Bullion Mountain West, California

R-2502E           Fort Irwin, California
R-2502N           Fort Irwin, California (also includes NASA's Goldstone
                    facility).

R-2505            China Lake, California (western part of China Lake Naval Air
                    Warfare Center)

R-2515            Muroc Lake, California (Edwards Air Force Base (AFB))

R-2516            Vandenberg AFB, California
R-2517            Vandenberg AFB, California

R-2519            Point Mugu, California (U.S Navy - Pacific missile test
                   range)

R-2524            Trona, California (eastern part of China Lake Naval Air
                    Warfare Center. Includes the "highly classified" 
                    electronic warfare facility, the Randsburg Wash Test
                    Range, also known as "Sea Site I")

R-2914A           Valparaiso, Florida (Eglin AFB, Air Force Development Test
                   Center (AFDTC))
R-2915A           Eglin AFB, Florida
R-2915B           Eglin AFB, Florida
R-2918            Valparaiso, Florida
R-2919A           Valparaiso, Florida

R-4806W           Las Vegas, Nevada (Nellis Air Force Base)
R-4807A           Tonopah, Nevada
R-4807B           Tonopah, Nevada
R-4808N           Las Vegas, Nevada (R-4808N covers both the Nevada Test
                    Site, and the Dreamland "box" around Groom Lake, which
                    is the rectangular region in the northeast of R-4808N)
R-4809            Tonopah, Nevada (R-4809 covers Tonopah Test Range, used
                    for activities such as F-117 fighter testing and
                    Department of Energy programs, such as nuclear rocket
                    testing in the 1960s)

R-5107A           White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
R-5107B           White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico (I'm currently
                    investigating something in this area that showed up
                    on a satellite picture. This anomaly is east of
                    Skillet Knob peak. R-5107B also includes Holloman AFB)

R-6604            Chincoteague Inlet, Virginia (used by NASA's Wallops Island
                    rocket facility)

OTHER LOCATIONS IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

Area Number       Description and comments
___________       _______________________________________________________
SAP6              Puerto Belgrano, Argentina

SBP-320           Itaborai, Brazil

CYR204            Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, Alberta and Saskatchewan,
                    Canada. (Well known for the large Maple Flag military
                    exercises.)

SCP3              Isla Dawson, Chile

MUP1              Havana, Cuba

MUP2              Bahia de Cochimos (I know a little Spanish and I think
                  this is the infamous "Bay of Pigs" that U.S. backed
                  Cuban rebels tried to invade.)

(MU)P-1002        Guantanamo Bay Naval Airspace Reservation, Cuba

MUP5              Santa Fe, Cuba

MUP39             Juragua, Cuba

SFP1              Falkland Islands

MHP1              Toncontin, Honduras

SUD8              Punta del Este, Uruguay (Curbuelo Naval Base)

SVP2501           Carrizal, Venezuela

SVP2502           Maracay, Venezuela

SVP2521           La Orchila Island, Venezuela