Michael Army Airfield is a military airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 located at the Dugway Proving Ground

Dugway Proving Ground

Dugway Proving Ground is a US Army facility located approximately 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah in southern Tooele County and just north of Juab County...

 and owned by the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

. It is nine miles (14 km) west of the the probing grounds baracks at Dugway

Dugway, Utah

Dugway is a census-designated place in Tooele County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,016, at the 2000 census, a modest increase over the 1990 figure of 1,761. "Dugway" is synonymous with the United States Army's giant testing facility, Dugway Proving Ground...

, Tooele County

Tooele County, Utah

Tooele County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000, the population was 40,735 and by 2005 was estimated at 51,311. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele....

, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Overview

Michael Army Airfield (MAAF) is located in a secluded, distant location and the secretive nature of its missions are generally undisclosed by the Army. Built by the Army during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, as Dugway Army Airfield, the facility is located in the Dugway Proving Ground which is one of the Army's main facilities for developing defenses against biological and chemical attacks. Workers at Dugway test defense gear to make sure they can survive nuclear, biological and chemical attacks.

MAAF is located just south of Hill Air Force Base

Hill Air Force Base

Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force Base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and near the towns of Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, Sunset, and Layton. It is about north of Salt Lake City. The base was named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air...

's massive Utah Test and Training Range, where F-16 Falcon fighters from Hill train in air-to-air combat and the Air Force tests cruise missiles, and is used occasionally by the Air Force as an emergency landing field.

It has been called the "new Area 51" by some, with the Dugway Proving Ground serving as a buffer zone, as the Nevada Test Site served for Groom Lake

Groom Lake

Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used for runways of the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. The lake at elevation is ~ from north to south and from east to west at its widest point...

.

Projects

In the 1990s, MAAF was associated with the NASA X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) program, for the International Space Station

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

. That program, however, was canceled in 2002 due to budget cuts.

One frequently rumored test project is the Lockheed Martin X-33

Lockheed Martin X-33

The Lockheed Martin X-33 was an unmanned, sub-scale technology demonstrator suborbital spaceplane developed in the 1990s under the U.S. government-funded Space Launch Initiative program. The X-33 was a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar orbital spaceplane, which was planned to be a...

. It is undetermined if MAAF will be used in association with the Boeing X-37

Boeing X-37

The Boeing X-37 is an American unmanned vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United States Air Force for orbital spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies...

 Advanced Technology Demonstrator, the military derivative of the X-38, a classified project which was transferred from NASA to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military...

 on 13 September 2004.

In 2009, it was announced that Michael AAF will be used for the development and testing of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), which are sent overseas to provide soldiers with an aerial view - via video feed - of combat situations.

Facilities

Michael AAF previously had a 13125 feet (4,000.5 m) runway which was in poor condition. An FAA airport diagram effective January 2008 shows a 7,000 by 150 feet (45.7 m) runway (12/30) open parallel to the prior runway, but the diagram effective February 2009 shows a new 11,000 by 150 feet (45.7 m) runway is open in place of the original runway.

External links

• Pappalardo, Joe (October 2009). New Area 51: Mojave's Desert Outpost Holds Space Flight's Future. Popular Mechanics.