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Classified Military Nonsense.
Most of it is boring
Some of it would put the fear of god into you
Weapons and such.
Most likely a testing facility for prototype aircraft, although probably not anymore because of how much attention it gets now
Some barely secret aircraft, a whole lot of accounting and clerical staff, and a tremendous amount of security to make it seem like there are major secrets being protected there. That is what I would put at the world's most well known secret base, anyway.
This is the answer I got over drinks with a senior military leader. It's too well known to hold anything interesting. He contrasted it with Mount Weather and the Cheyenne Complex. Those are still the sites for continuity of government because there is too much infrastructure to move. The sites just got additional hardening as the locations became known.
That's where they keep the Stargate
One of them, the other is at Area 51 and came in really handy when the bastards stole the first one
It's a great way to keep the UFO nuts contained. Let them scurry around the surrounding area as much as they want. Occasionally arrest one who gets too insistent and the others will take that as confirmation that something big is hidden there.
Plus a bunch of old equipment and documents that are definitely secret and too valuable to just destroy, but no-one is entirely clear exactly how secret and valuable so it's safer to leave it guarded in place than to try and move it
Apparently a bathroom in Mar-a-Lago is a very legal and very cool place to keep them.
That's what I think is there now. A big pile of stuff that isn't really useful anymore but they don't want anyone else to see. Indiana Jones warehouse style.
I'm imagining a somewhat boring looking office/lab with a bunch of locked rooms.
"What's in there?"
"Oh, it was Dr Simpsons lab in the 90s"
"Well what were they working on?"
"Don't know, its classified"
"Well can we get rid of it?"
"I don't know, it's classified"
"Well who does know?"
"I don't know, its classified"
"Well who DOES know?"
"... classified."
"Well is there anything dangerous in there?"
"That's classified, also, take a good look round at the building you are in and think about that question some more"
"Shit."
"your questions are concerning. Flagged."
Or. Do a double bluff. Since it's so well known, put your actual top secret stuff there, since no one will really look at it, because it's so well known.
It's likely that at least one arm of Lockheed Martin's "skunkworks" operates there. Area 51 was significantly more important during the cold war, when we were developing aircraft we wanted to keep secret from the Soviets. Nowadays, less so.
Military aircraft are tested there. We know for sure the U-2 spy plane was tested there, and the base was also involved with the development and testing of the plane that eventually became the SR-71 Blackbird. It's likely the F117 ("stealth fighter") and B2 ("stealth bomber") were also tested there, and possibly partially developed there.
Unless you're a military aviation nut, it's actually not very exciting.
Groom Lake is cool as an aviation nut but Edwards is just as cool with the extra extra long runway for incoming spacecraft, and they have a test flight museum just off base. Vandenberg is also a space launch site and you don’t have to go to the middle of Nevada
Development and prototypes for new millitary aircraft and missiles.
Aliens? Lol, no.
Alien aircarft? Lol, no
Alien Tiddies
Makes me wish I had three hands.
Big ole?
BOAT
Big ol alien tiddies
Thank God, my tax dollars, ya know
A bunch of people Naruto running.
At least one toilet.
Probably some old teletype machines and a few private keys.
There is definitely some test craft and systems that are next gen or early future gen. They need a controllable dead zone for EM to test certain systems before they can test it in real world EM polluted areas.
They probably have labs for development, but most of that stuff is handled by the MIC unless it is so secret that they can't allow anything to leave the base except for personnel that could be highly vetted and controlled.
Just for testing one aircraft, they need a huge amount of infrastructure and personnel which necessitates a fairly large base. Some of their stuff they would need to tear down to base components to inspect parts after every flight. They need facilities on-site to repair or replace components that probably only exist on that aircraft.
So most of the base may exist and operate just to test one new aircraft that is 10 years away from production or to service something like the X-37 program.
Experimental military tech
A military base
It is the 51st area.
You have to complete the other 50 areas to unlock it
It’s a classified military installation. Those that know for sure don’t talk and those that are talking are probably talking out their ass.
It is known that it has historically been used as a test and research location for highly experimental stealth aircraft. They probably do EM sensitive research and testing there now, but I suspect that the really interesting stuff is happening elsewhere due to how well known and watched it has become. It’s probably more of a decoy than anything else at this point.
Long ago, I remember hearing rumors about a more secretive base a bit west of Groom Lake and south of the Cheyenne Mountain complex. If true, that’s probably where the really secret stuff is happening now. No clue what happens there.
If you want classified leaks out of area 51, just add it to War Thunder apparently.
Really expensive hammers and toilet seats
My guess: Testing ground for new military aircraft.
Theres no "alien" lmfao
They just don't want people to get too close and leak images of their newest and most advanced war machines. Because that's gonna trigger a firestorm of news like "PENTAGON TESTING NEW KILLING MACHINES!"
Yea... I don't think people want to be reminded how much of their tax dollars are going to the military, so the government want to hide it as much as possible to avoid bad PR.
Edit: Also, they might have even more advanced tech hidden in some other place like "Area 52", and intentionally popularize "Area 51" to divert the attention. Okay this bit might be a bit too much "conspiracy", but not impossible.
Experimental aircraft
I've always believed that they develop/test aircraft there. Big empty area in the desert, wide open skies to play around in and not a whole lot to worry about on the ground below, predictable weather patterns, lack of population to complain about the constant sonic booms, etc... seems like the perfect spot to do it.
That's not much of a secret. The Blackbird, as well as the B-2 and F-117 for example were all tested there.
Not American but aware of it as much of the world is. I’d guess they have military facilities doing some research and development there but anything truly wild will be done somewhere else, probably Alaska or another desert location.
With all the eyes on it all the time probably not got anything really juicy there.
Eh, anything interesting is going to be inside and out of sight. The desert is so big that people aren't going to be sneaking up on it without you noticing.
We're not going to rely on obscurity to keep our research sites secure. People who have worked at similar secure sites report parking at the meeting building, changing into their work coveralls, going through a security screening and then being driven for an hour or two in a bus with blacked out windows to work in a sealed building with no windows before being driven back in similar conditions.
Using your existing classified development facility has the advantage that you can keep activities at it at a roughly constant level, so anyone watching from a satellite can't tell if there's more or less activity that would indicate something interesting. Just make sure that a dozen busses show up every day, regardless of how many people are in them.
It's similar to how you can tell the Pentagons level of alert by looking at pizza delivery wait times at off hours on Google maps.
A Starbucks.
Rusty Shackleford
There has been some speculation of mine that goes like this.
There are 50 states.
You have a place called Area 51.
Could it be holding its own population?
A serious idea I have about it is that it's just a regular catastrophe testing site for weapons we have never heard about. Can you imagine the government being like "can you agree to keep yourself a secret and get in this base and let us have a monopoly on the ability to talk about you" and the aliens being like "sure, random inferior government".
Between area 50 and 52
You can see Area 51 on Google Maps. The actual airspace/land is what constitutes “Area 51”, and if you search for Area 51 it will take you right to the runways on Google Maps. Have fun looking at it.
It’s honestly pretty boring unless you’re into military R&D as this place was the testing grounds for amazing secret tech like the SR-71 or the newer stealth designs. I would be surprised if the facility wasn’t still used for this purpose, it’s still highly restricted and not discussed.
As for anything more…exotic? Alien tech or stuff outside the known physical limitations of flight as we know it? No. No aliens (the physics of and life support needed for interstellar travel are an insurmountable barrier to aliens ever visiting us) or alien tech is there. And no crazy human UFO-like tech is there, either. (UFO like lights hovering and zipping off at stupid speeds kind of tech).
Wow, how do you know so much about what alien technology is capable of?
(GUYS I THINK WE'VE GOT ONE OVER HERE!)