Nevada’s classified ranges
Secret MiGs at Tonopah and Groom Lake
The Red Eagles story belongs to two remote Nevada airfields. Groom Lake hosted the early exploitation work; Tonopah Test Range gave CONSTANT PEG the isolation and space needed to turn secret knowledge into operational training.
Groom Lake: where America learned the MiGs
Beginning with HAVE DOUGHNUT in 1968, acquired Soviet aircraft were evaluated over the Nevada ranges. Pilots and engineers measured performance, discovered vulnerabilities and compared the MiGs directly with American fighters under tightly controlled conditions.
Why CONSTANT PEG needed another home
An expanding training programme required a remote operating base with restricted airspace, room for facilities and little public visibility. Tonopah Test Range, about 30 miles southeast of the town, offered an isolated Department of Energy airfield on the northern edge of the Nellis ranges.
Building an airbase without revealing it
The runway and support areas had to be improved while the programme remained compartmented. Early plans were famously sketched rapidly, then turned into a facility capable of supporting daily MiG operations, visiting crews and the security of a deeply classified mission.
MiGs by day, stealth nearby
Tonopah’s development also intersected with the emerging F-117 story. The same remoteness that protected CONSTANT PEG made the range valuable to other black programmes, producing one of the most extraordinary concentrations of secret aviation activity in the Cold War.