Nightstalker 1 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:35 pm
Pics to come.
I'm looking forward!
Thanks!
I have managed to properly redact (maybe a little too much) a few of them. This shows the launch from Alamo Road (originally planned from the summit of Dead Horse Ridge) as well as the drone's perspective in the first few moments of its 1.5 hour round trip GPS guided-radio silent flight into the heavily restricted area. Turns out, launching on them from within the restricted airspace itself worked like a charm. I might even release what I saw at the destination

Even so, you can't be too careful given the nature of the facility. One of the reasons it exists is to test advanced radar against the newest stealth technology. The stealth techniques used on this UAS are certainly not new, but for a vehicle this size they were highly effective. Good thing I made it before the DIRTBOXs' were installed. Although without the active 4G cellular link even they wouldn't have defeated it.
Although I missed Groom Lake by a few miles to the South (should've recalculated the waypoint mission but alas I did not) Papoose Lake is the site of a rumored secret base, and I may have captured some evidence for its presence.
NOTE: These images expire after 30 days and will be automatically deleted. Not sure how this improves OPSEC, but the idea of them being on a public server indefinitely doesn't sit well with me!
Successfully launching against a Top Secret government installation is a worthy cause for celebration. One of my team mates dances for joy while I carefully run the sticks until the GPS mission software takes over flight controls.
Anyone familiar with Google maps/Earth should be able to verify the location is exactly what I claim it is. The topography and land features are as distinct as a fingerprint.
A topo map to help give you an idea where I started and what direction I took off in.
And here is a composite map showing the planned launch point vs. the actual launch point. Turns out getting to the summit of this "hill" was not going to be possible. So I'd have to adapt on the fly.
As you can see in the pictures, this is not a stock Parrot Disco drone. It has been upgraded with a 4G cellular radio with 2 properly spaced/oriented dipole antennas, painted a light gray color for visual stealth and has a matrix of iron spheres embedded within the paint to further reduce its radar cross section. The 4G radio replaced the WiFi based system the stock model used, since 4G blends in far better than WiFi (some anti-air systems look for these tell-tale signatures) plus this freed up the 802.11 antennas for SIGINT or other tasking. The actual penetration occurred with totally dead radio links, with the drone passively receiving GPS data and using its internal flight computer to fly the mission. Additionally, the black thing jutting out of the side is the massive battery I installed. The battery upgrade gave it around 2 hours of flight time, I'd only need an hour and a half max including the 5 minutes it would take the drone to make three passes over the target at varying altitudes and angles