A restricted military area or military out-of-bounds area is an area under military jurisdiction where special security measures are used to prevent unauthorized entry.[1]
Restricted military areas are associated with strict legal restrictions. In Australia, military bases cannot be sketched, drawn, photographed and people who do so are subject to 6 months imprisonment. Even approaching a base with equipment capable of doing those things is forbidden.[2] In the United States, trespass of a military base without permission is punishable by six months imprisonment.[3]
Restricted military areas have been relied upon as a legal justification for the eviction of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.[4]
Restrictions against access to military bases has been a source of pop-culture myths, as in the case of Area 51 in the United States.[5] Classified activities on such bases and the secrecy surrounding those activities have captured public imagination. One such example is the Roswell incident, where debris from a classified military balloon became a UFO myth.[6] [7]
Works of fiction have been written about prominent military bases. The Australian TV series Pine Gap is one such series; with a narrative centring on joint defence operations at the international intelligence facility Pine Gap, south-west of Alice Springs, Australia.[8]
The following is a list of notable restricted military areas:
| Area 51 | United States | 1955 | Acquired initially in 1955 by the USAF and CIA for the purpose of flight testing Lockheed U-2 aircraft | ||
| Brdy | Czech Republic | 1925 | Range of hills, mostly covered by forest | ||
| Penhale Sands | United Kingdom | 1939 | The restricted military area, Penhale Camp, is found on the northern part of the dunes | ||
| Pine Gap | Australia | 1970 | Partly run by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), US National Security Agency (NSA), and US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and is a key contributor to the NSA's global interception/surveillance effort, which included the ECHELON programCentral Australia was chosen because it was too remote for spy ships passing in international waters to intercept its signals | ||
| Woomera Prohibited Area | Australia | 1947 | Initially used as the site of Britain's rocket testing program. Nuclear tests were carried out for Britain also seven times between 1956 and 1963. Aboriginal Australians were forcibly relocated from the siteIn modern times it is used by the UK, USA, and Australia for testing |
Olmsted writes "When one of these balloons smashed into the sands of the New Mexico ranch, the military decided to hide the project's real purpose." In 1994 and 1997, official government reports (Weaver & McAndrew 1995) concluded (p. 9) "... the material recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon device and most likely from one of the MOGUL balloons that had not been previously recovered."
"Flight 4 was launched June 4, 1947, from Alamogordo Army Air Field and tracked flying northeast toward Corona. It was within of the Brazel ranch when contact was lost."