Intelligence
The southeastern New Mexican town of Artesia is the location for one of the principal campuses of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). The FLETC, headquartered in Glynco, Georgia, serves as a law enforcement training organization for more than 80 Federal agencies, and also provides...
Beale AFB is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft base. Located in the Sacramento Valley, it is home to the only stateside reconnaissance wing, which recently flew the SR-71 Blackbird and still flies the nation's fleet of U2 spy planes. Beale is also one of four U.S. locations for the Phased...
An office building complex in suburban Virginia is the home of the CIA, one of the major intelligence organizations in the world, and a centralized hub for the (nearly) full spectrum of intelligence assets operated by the United States and cooperating governments, corporations, and organizations....
A location of one of four unique early-warning system antennas in the country that use phased-array radar. Housed in large pyramidal structures, and called PAVE PAWS, these antennas are also used to track space debris. This site has a staff of around 160 people, and is associated with Goodfellow...
The FBI headquarters are located in this office building in Washington, DC, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, on Pennsylvania Ave., between 9th and 10th Streets NW. The FBI used to give tours of the facility, consisting of a videotape presentation, a sharpshooting demonstration, and information on the...
Major communications and intelligence center for the military. Located on 73,272 acres (114 square miles) in southern Arizona, Huachuca is home to units such as the Army Intelligence Center, the Army Information Systems Command, and the Joint Interoperability Test Command. More than 12,000 people...
Fort Meade is an intelligence nexus employing more than 40,000 people. It is home of the National Security Agency (NSA), the largest tenant at Fort Meade and perhaps the most secretive and sophisticated federal intelligence organization, as well as headquarters for numerous Army, Navy, and Air...
Intelligence training is the primary mission of Goodfellow, located on the edge of the West Texas town of San Angelo. Over 6,000 students are trained in cryptology, linguistics, and intelligence imagery. Goodfellow is the home of the Air Force's firefighters school, and also operates the Eldorado...
Gunter is a logistics and computer systems analysis and training center for the Air Force, and is headquarters for the Standard Systems Group (SSG), which is responsible for "data processing and communications computer systems and capabilities for major commands and Air Force bases around the world...
Located on the high-technology region of the Route 128 beltway, northwest of Boston, Hanscom is said to be the fourth largest corporate entity in Massachusetts, and is one of the Air Force's primary research and development centers for surveillance and intelligence electronics. Established on a...
A nonprofit R&D lab, specializing in weapons for the Navy, operated by Johns Hopkins University. Similar in some respects to MIT's Draper Lab, this lab was formed by the Department of Defense in WWII, as a weapons research and development lab and think tank. Located on a 365-acre compound,...
A peak next to the ocean near Ventura that has several aerospace functions. Facilities track and monitor launches of missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Point Mugu, and other sites. Laguna Peak's Naval Satellite Operations Station is part of a network of satellite control facilities,...
Lincoln Lab is a large electromagnetic communications R...
The main site for Lockheed Martin's Astronautics division is a 5,400-acre industrial site, with numerous production, test, and space simulation facilities, and over 70 laboratories. The Astronautics division designs and manufactures space launch vehicles, such as Titan and Atlas rockets; satellites...
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Systems in Sunnyvale, adjacent to Moffett Field, is one of the most important satellite development and manufacturing plants in the United States. It covers 412 acres and employs 6,500 people. Over 850 orbited satellites have been built here, including civilian...
Located near Los Angeles Airport (LAX), this base is the headquarters for the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), a major military satellite development organization. SMC is responsible for research, development, acquisition, testing and sustainment of military space and missile...
McClellan is a diverse military industrial center being transitioned into civilian use, for the most part. The 3,700 acre base has over 150 industrial buildings and many unusual high-tech weapons support facilities, including the only industrial nuclear reactor operated by the Department of Defense...
MITRE is a nonprofit systems engineering and information technology company, formed in 1958 to take over the SAGE project, developed by MIT's Lincoln Lab, located down the road. SAGE was the first nationwide automatic warning and defense system, a program which at the time constituted the largest...
The headquarters for the National Reconnaissance Office, the federal spy satellite organization, is located in this four-building complex on 68 acres, five miles south of Dulles International Airport. The $350 million complex was completed in 1994, and houses around 3,000 NRO employees. The NRO was...
Located on the grounds of Fort Meade, the headquarters for the nation's premier covert intelligence gathering organization are housed in two high-rise office structures, built and dedicated by Ronald Reagan in 1986, and in other structures on the base, including an estimated 10 acres of which are...
Home of headquarters for NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), and the administrative headquarters for the notorious underground command center in nearby Cheyenne Mountain. The network of radar sites across the continent, such as PAVE-PAWS antennas on Cape Cod, and in Northern...
Part of a network of satellite control facilities, under operation by the Navy. Headquartered at Point Mugu, CA, the facilities include stations at Rosemount, MN, Laguna Peak, CA, and the Lincoln Laboratory in Massachusetts. The Navy, at one point, used its own system of satellites for navigation,...
Headquarters for the Space Warfare Center and a major control center for military satellites, through a complex of golf-ball-shaped radomes on base. The global positioning system (GPS) is also controlled from here, with the master clock on the base keeping the system in synch. The transfer of...
For over 50 years, Skaggs Island was a secretive, secure, and self-contained naval base, engaged in a number of communications and intelligence gathering functions for the Navy and other federal intelligence organizations. Direction-finding high-frequency antennas, for example, could aid in...
Sugar Grove is a military communications center, with a two-story underground facility, operated primarily by the Navy. One function may be to monitor microwave communications for the National Security Agency. It is located within the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000 square mile zone established...
UMore Park is a mysterious multilayered R&Dscape of ruins and gated areas. This 12,000-acre area surrounded by farmland south of the Twin Cities has had a variety of uses since 1941, many of which have left interesting vestiges. In WW2 it was hurriedly built as Gopher Ordnance Works, making...
A notoriously secretive federal facility, involved principally in communications. Allegedly has underground facilities. This, “Site B,” is the headquarters, associated with three other nearby locations: Site A, C and D. Site A is more of a training facility, sites C and D are antenna facilities....
The "Yakima Research Station" is a secretive satellite earth station operated by the National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept satellite communications. The complex is located within the secure perimeter of the Army's Yakima Firing Range, in the relatively radio interference-free environment of...