Area 51 (2013)

Area 51 is a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range in southern Nevada, 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest of Las Vegas. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport (ICAO: KXTA, FAA LID: XTA) or Groom Lake (after the salt flat next to its airfield). Details of its operations are not made public, but the USAF says that it is an open training range, and it is commonly thought to support the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons.

The USAF and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) acquired the site in 1955, primarily for flight tests of the Lockheed U-2 aircraft. All research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI). The CIA publicly acknowledged the base's existence on 25 June 2013, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2005; it has declassified documents detailing its history and purpose.

Source Title

Wikipedia: Area 51

Source URL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51

Source Notes

Imported from Wikipedia REST, MediaWiki, and Wikidata sources on 2026-07-12. Review article citations and edit details before saving. Wikimedia image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Sentinel-Homey.png. Date note: Date text was found in the article; review the default time before publishing.

1. Occurred Jun 25, 2013 12:00 PM UTC
2. Submitted Jul 12, 2026 10:19 PM Historical Archive created
3. Approved Jul 12, 2026 10:19 PM Moderator reviewed
4. Media Uploaded Jul 12, 2026 10:19 PM 1 media file