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The Threat Training Facility at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas
isn't the easiest place to get into. In fact, its very existence
was classified until 1993, since its $70 million collection of Soviet military
equipment was considered highly secret. Nowadays it's still next
to impossible to get access unless you're on active service with the US
Air Force, but it's certainly better known, even making an appearance during
the recent IMAX "Fighter Pilot" movie set at Nellis. As a member
of the press contingent for the
2004 Nellis Air Show, I made it a priority to visit this unusual museum,
and Program Chief Bernard Zager was kind enough to make the arrangements
and show me around.
Nellis Air Force Base is the primary flight testing station for new USAF
aircraft, a role it has filled since the early 1950s and continues to fill
today, most recently with the development of the F-22 Raptor and the 11th,
15th and 17th Reconnaisance Squadrons, which operate unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) over the 3.1 million acre Nellis Range. This was the
logical place, then, for the development of a research department to provide
hands-on assessment of the capabilities of enemy military equipment.
The Threat Training Facility was established in 1976, and currently operates
under the control of the 547th Intelligence Squadron, whose motto is "Our
Adversaries Have No Secrets".
As you can tell, the Threat Training Facility is not an aircraft museum
in the ordinary sense of the term. Instead it is a research
facility which determines the capabilities and shortcomings of enemy weapon
systems, with the primary focus on enemy
aircraft, anti-aircraft systems and tanks. This means that
quite a number of the aircraft have been flown by American pilots, which
is why Lt Gen David McCloud has his name listed beside the cockpit of the
MiG-17 "Fresco" fighter, and why many of the instruments in the Mi-24 "Hind"
helicopter gunship are labelled in English. Another major focus
is to provide hands-on training to American military forces, which involves
not just the preparation and delivery of training material, but also the
opportunity for "hands-on" experience with the equipment. This
unusual freedom to handle and even sit inside the equipment has lead to
the nickname "The Petting Zoo". |
