Random Most Mysterious Military Facilities in the United States (21 items)

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  (#1) Raven Rock Mountain Complex

  Also known as Site R, Raven Rock Mountain Complex is an underground bunker designed to be the US Command center in the event of WWIII, as a backup for the Pentagon. Located near Blue Ridge Summit, PA, the facility is built into a mountain, and designed to withstand a nuclear blast. It is entirely self-sufficient, with two power plants, multiple underground water reservoirs, and a sophisticated ventilation system.

  It can operate for 30 days with no access to the outside world, and can accommodate 3,000 people.
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  (#2) High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)

  Located in Alaska, HAARP has generated international criticism. Officially, HAARP is a research facility designed for studying the ionosphere. It was shut down in 2014, amid substantial controversy. Some conspiracy theorists believe it was a weapon designed to control the weather. Former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez claimed HAARP (or a program like it) caused the catastrophic Haiti earthquake in 2010.

  Some also claim it can generate force field-like plasma barriers, and disrupt communications.
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  (#3) Fort Meade NSA Headquarters

  Fort Meade, MD, is the headquarters of the mysterious National Security Agency (NSA). Nicknamed the No Such Agency, the NSA is tasked with surveillance and code breaking. The organization answers to the Director of National Intelligence, and is so secretive even their budget is classified. The NSA began as a radio interception and code breaking agency in the first and second World Wars, and in the 21st century monitors massive amounts of information being transmitted over the Internet daily.

  In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked a series of documents proving the NSA spies on American citizens.
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  (#4) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

  • Ohio, USA

  Located east of Dayton, OH, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has been operating since 1917, when it was used as an aviation testing facility. Scientists at the base reverse-engineered foreign aircraft during the Cold War, and conspiracy theorists believe they also work on alien technology. Accounts link Wright-Patterson, and in particular Hangar 18, to the Roswell crash.

  It is said that after the crash, the recovered debris and the alien bodies were flown to Hanger 18 to be studied.
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  (#5) NSA Utah Data Center

  Opened in 2013, this is the largest spy center ever built by man. It is a massive server farm created to monitor any and all Internet traffic, capable of storing approximately five zettabytes of data (a zettabyte is one billion terabytes). It cost about $2 billion to build and spans a million square feet. The facility has raised concerns from privacy advocates, who suspect it's being used to collect wholesale data on American citizens.

  The NSA allowed Greenpeace to fly a blimp over the facility, with a sign reading "illegal spying below" and an arrow pointing down.
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  (#6) Dugway Proving Ground

  Dugway Proving Ground is the main Army base for testing biological and chemical weapons. Located in the middle of nowhere in western Utah, the facility is roughly the size of Rhode Island, and divided into two sections. The northern part is operated by the Army, the southern portion controlled by the Air Force. The southern section has a runway large enough to land a space shuttle, leading conspiracy theorists to believe extraterrestrial research is taking place at the base.

  According to Dr. Steven M. Greer, who studies extraterrestrial activity, scientists at Dugway are reverse-engineering captured alien technology.
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  (#7) Mount Weather

  Mount Weather is a top secret site that serves as the backup site for the National Operations Center, run by the Department of Homeland Security. During the September 11, 2001 attacks, Vice President Cheney was transported to Mount Weather. The subterranean facility has been operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) since 1979, but has been in service for much longer than that.

  It was first revealed to the public in 1974, when an airplane crashed nearby. Reporters covering the crash were prevented from getting close to the facility.
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  (#8) Cheyenne Mountain Complex

  Carved into the mountains of Colorado, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex military base is home to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). Designed to withstand a nuclear blast, the facility monitors the skies constantly for any and all threats. It is owned and operated by the Air Force Space Command, and is completely self-sustaining, with its own power plant, heating and cooling system, and water supply.

  It is a level one security designation, more secure than the Pentagon.
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  (#9) Diego Garcia

  Diego Garcia is an atoll, which is basically a hollow island with a lagoon at its center, located in the Indian Ocean. In 1966, the British confiscated the atoll from the indigenous Chagossians, all 1,500 or so of whom were forced to relocate. Because Diego Garcia is UK territory, the US can operate a military base there without being beholden to US law. 

  At some point, a mysterious US Naval base opened on the atoll. It is believed that some al-Qaeda operatives are held and interrogated at Diego Garcia, though this allegation has been denied by the US military
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  (#10) Area 51

  • Nevada, USA

  In 2013, numerous documents about Area 51 were declassified, finally confirming the existence of the base. The documents revealed that researchers at the base conducted covert work on Soviet MiG fighter jets, the U-2 spy plane, and the Skylab space station. Pictures were taken of the facility from spy satellites and planes to simulate what could be deduced by the Soviets from such images.

  Conspiracy theorists list the facility as the locus of extraterrestrial research in America, where the government experimented on the aliens and alien technology allegedly captured at Roswell, NM.
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  (#11) Jackass Flats

  Jackass Flats, officially designated Area 25, is a Nevada-based military facility that was home to Project PLUTO. The aim of PLUTO was to create a Supersonic Low Altitude Missile (SLAM) powered by nuclear ramjet engines. The missile could carry multiple nuclear warheads, would have almost unlimited range, and be able to stay airborne for weeks.

  Despite some successful initial tests, the project was considered too provocative and abandoned.
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  (#12) Fort Detrick

  Located in Frederick, MD, this military base has conducted many experiments in biological warfare. Agent Orange, an herbicide used during the Vietnam War, which the Red Cross estimates caused illness or defects in a million Vietnamese people, was developed at Fort Detrick. German (and former Soviet) biologist Jakob Segal claims that HIV/AIDS was created at Fort Dedrick. Clusters of cancer have occurred in the area around the fort, though no link to the base has been proven.
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  (#13) Secret, Unnamed Drone Base in Saudi Arabia

  Satellite images reveal what appears to be a secret US Drone base located deep in the Saudi Arabian Desert. The base doesn't appear at all in Google's catalog of satellite images, but the facility seems to be a base used to fly unmanned drones into Yemen. It was first spotted by satellite in 2012, which roughly coincides with stories of an unknown base from the Washington Post.

  If the base is the same, then it might be the place from which the strike on Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaeda propagandist, was launched.
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  (#14) Harvey Point

  Harvey Point Defense Testing facility, a mysterious CIA outpost in North Carolina, is where Navy SEALs trained before their mission to kill Osama Bin Laden. Satellite images were captured showing a mock up of the Bin Laden facility on the base. Besides these images, very little is known about the facility.

  The base was created in 1961 as a secret weapons testing facility and continues to operate to this day.
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  (#15) Air Force Plant 42

  Most of the top secret aircraft produced by the US government in the past 50 years have been built at Air Force Plant 42. This facility was responsible for the U-2 Spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the B-2 stealth bomber. Located near Palmdale, CA, the base spans nine square miles. Air Force Plant 42 is owned by another base on this list, Wright-Patterson, but operated by a California-based team. 
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  (#16) Yucca Lake Airfield

  Located in the top secret Tonopah Test Range, Yucca Lake Airfield was spotted by satellite images in 2011. It is believed to be the test site for MQ-1 Predator and/or MQ-9 Reaper unmanned drones, as well as other Lockheed Martin technology. Lockheed Martin is a private contractor central to the military-industrial complex, and has links to several other facilities on this list.

  Yucca Lake Airfield was constructed around 2002, and is a classified US Air Force installation.
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  (#17) Harold E. Holt Naval Communications Station

  Located in Northwest Australia, this base coordinates radio signals for the entire southeastern hemisphere. In 2008, radio signals from the base were suspected to have induced a glitch in a passenger airliner, causing the plane to drop 650 feet in a matter of seconds, but nothing conclusive was ever found.

  Opened in 1967, the facility uses Very Low Frequency radio signals to communicate with maritime vessels, including submarines, at great distances.
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  (#18) Tolicha Peak Electronic Combat Range

  Located in Nevada, Tolicha Peak Electronic Combat Range, an extremely remote facility in the Mojave Desert, is allegedly where fighter pilots are trained in electronic warfare. Not much is known about the classified base aside from vague second-hand accounts, and it is almost impossible to see from ground level, though some conspiracy theorists have conducted fly-overs, and taken photos of the area. Multiple radar stations have been spotted on satellite images of the area.
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  (#19) Joint Defense Facility Pine Gap Australia

  Nicknamed the Area 51 of Australia, this military base is a joint venture between Australia and the US. Located in the remote outback, Pine Gap is one of the key facilities to the US surveillance apparatus. It is used to spy on Asia, and has been linked to drone strikes in Pakistan.

  Some believe the facility is also used to conduct research on alien technology.
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  (#20) Al Udeid Combined Air and Space Operations Center in Qatar

  Located in Al Udeid, the Combined Air and Space Operations Center in Qatar was first revealed to the public in 2013, when then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited it. It is the center of US air operations in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, and serves as the nerve center for the air campaign against ISIS.
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  (#21) Camp Lemonnier

  Located in Djibouti, a small country in the Gulf of Aden, Camp Lemonnier is a former French Foreign Legion base that has been converted to a US drone warfare facility. The base flies missions into the nearby countries of Somalia and Yemen. It is believed to have been involved in the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen who became an al-Qaeda planner and propagandist. It is the only officially acknowledged US military base in Africa.

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