Editing SPOILER: Hopewell Facility (section)

== Operations at Groom Lake ==
Groom Lake is not a conventional airbase, and frontline units are not normally deployed there.  It appears, rather, to be used during the development, test and training phases for new aircraft.  Once those aircraft have been accepted by the [[USAF]], operation of that aircraft is generally shifted to a normal air force base.  Groom is reported, however, to be the permanent home for a small number of aircraft of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] design (obtained by various means).  These are reportedly analyzed and used for training purposes. 

Soviet spy satellites obtained photographs of the Groom Lake area during the height of the Cold War, but these support only modest conclusions about the base. They depict a nondescript base, airstrip, hangars, etc., but nothing that supports some of the wilder claims about underground facilities.  Later commercial satellite images show the base has grown, but remains superficially unexceptional.

=== Senior Trend / U-2 program ===
Groom Lake was used for bombing and artillery practice during [[World War II]], but was then abandoned until [[1955]], when it was selected by [[Lockheed]]'s [[skunkworks]] team as the ideal location to test the forthcoming [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] spy plane. The lakebed made for an ideal strip to operate the troublesome test aircraft from, and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter protected the secret plane from curious eyes.

Lockheed constructed a makeshift base at Groom, little more than a few shelters and workshops and a small constellation of trailer homes in which to billet its small team.  The first U-2 flew at Groom in August [[1955]], and U-2s under the control of the [[CIA]] began overflights of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] territory by mid-[[1956]].

During this period, the NTS continued to perform a series of atmospheric nuclear explosions.  U-2 operations throughout [[1957]] were frequently disrupted by the [[Operation Plumbbob|Plumbbob]] series of atomic tests, which exploded over two dozen devices at the NTS.  The Plumbbob-Hood explosion on [[July 5]] scattered [[Nuclear fallout|fallout]] across Groom and forced its (temporary) evacuation.

As the U-2's primary mission was to overfly the Soviet Union, it operated largely from airbases near the Soviet border, including [[Incirlik Air Base|Incirlik]] in [[Turkey]] and [[Peshawar]] in [[Pakistan]].

=== Blackbird (OXCART / A-10 / A-11 / A-12 / SR-71) program ===
Even before U-2 development was complete, Lockheed began work on its successor, the [[CIA]]'s ''OXCART'' project, a [[Mach number|Mach]]-3 high altitude [[reconnaissance]] aircraft later known as the [[SR-71 Blackbird]].  The Blackbird's flight characteristics and maintenance requirements forced a massive expansion of facilities and runways at Groom Lake.  By the time the first A-12 Blackbird prototype flew at Groom in [[1962]], the main runway had been lengthened to 8500 ft (2600 m), and the base boasted a complement of over 1000 personnel.  It had fueling tanks, a control tower, and a [[baseball]] diamond.  Security was also greatly enhanced, the small civilian mine in the Groom basin was closed, and the area surrounding the valley was made an exclusive military preserve (where interlopers were subject to "lethal force").  Groom saw the first flight of all major Blackbird variants: A-10, A-11, A-12, RS-71 (renamed [[SR-71]] by USAF Chief of Staff [[Curtis LeMay]] and not by a presidential error as popularly believed), the abortive YF-12A strike-fighter variant, and the disastrous D-21 Blackbird-based drone project.

=== Have Blue / F-117 program ===
The first [[Have Blue]] prototype stealth fighter (a smaller cousin of the [[F-117 Nighthawk]]) first flew at Groom in late [[1977]].  Testing of a series of ultra-secret prototypes continued there until mid-[[1981]], when testing transitioned to the initial production of F-117 stealth fighters.  In addition to flight testing, Groom performed radar profiling, F-117 weapons testing, and was the location for training of the first group of frontline USAF F-117 pilots.  Subsequently active-service F-117 operations (still highly classified) moved to the nearby [[Tonopah Test Range]] and finally to [[Holloman Air Force Base]].

=== Later operations ===
Since the F-117 became operational in [[1983]], operations at Groom Lake have continued unabated.  The base and its associated runway system have been expanded, and the daily flights bringing civilian commuters from Las Vegas continue.  Some commentators, after examining recent satellite photos of the base, estimate it to have a live-in complement of over 1000 people, with a similar number commuting from Las Vegas.  In [[1995]] the federal government expanded the exclusionary area around the base to include nearby mountains that had hitherto afforded the only decent overlook of the base. Subsequently, limited views of the area are available only from the summits of several distant mountains, particularly Tikaboo Peak ({{coor dms|37|20|40|N|115|21|32|W|}}), around 26 miles (42 km) to the east.

Rumored aircraft that have supposedly been tested at Groom include the various classified [[Unmanned aerial vehicle|UAV]]s, a small stealthy [[VTOL]] troop-transport aircraft, a stealthy [[cruise missile]], and the hypothetical [[Aurora aircraft|Aurora]] [[hypersonic]] spy plane.