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WW2 Bomber Ship Targets

hpmicrowave

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WW2 Nellis Bomber Ship Targets

This is one of my Favorite Spots as seen from Google Earth, I first saw these ship targets years ago while flying F4 training missions on the Nellis Range, then one day I went into Google earth to see if I could find them again, and I did.

You can see two likely Japanese war ship outlines plowed in the desert (I think one is a battleship the other an aircraft carrier).

These targets I believe were mainly used as B-24 Bombing targets for the WW-II AAF Tonopah Training base. You can see how hard it was for WW-II bomber training crews to hit Non-Moving Ship Targets! Its amazing after 75+ years you can still see the bomb craters from training munitions (I'm not sure if these were live weapons or not?).

These and other targets are in the NW corner of the R4807A Restricted area so to visit them you have to contact Nellis Approach (124.45 or LA Cntr) to ask/beg for range access. Best possible visit times would be Sundays or Holidays (when no Military flights are using the range) with pre-coordinated flight plans. Not saying they will give it to you but that's what's required, until then you will have to visit using Google Earth.
 

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Now that is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time! As you pointed out, amazingly clear and well preserved after all these years. Thx for sharing!
 
The misses weren’t by much!!! This was when I should have been born, ahhhhh. No cell phones, no Millennials, airplanes were loud....... :(
 
Those looks like live ordnance craters to me! Most of the them are 1 1/2 to 2 times the width of the perimeter dirt road nearby, and some look to have accumulated water.

The largest vessel measures 950' in length

And the overall crater count is not that high, maybe less than 100. So this isn't a well established training area. Maybe a test?

Cool history out there for sure
 
Targets near KFOK

There were targets in the woods just north west of KFOK (Long Island, N.Y.) The airport started as a Cold War base and had a lot of training history. The targets were wooden and are long gone due to rotting and the 1995 brush fire, but you can still the outline of a few on google earth, especially if you have the program that lets you look back. The carrier is at 40*51’47”N 72*41’22”W. They have been well picked through by metal detectors, even where the sand pits south of 27 are, where the clips and brass were found. Ben
 
Any Nellis pilots seen these targets?

There in the NW corner area of the 70 series ranges, might not recognize them for what they are (ship target outlines) when your whizzing by at 480 knots or more!

About 10 miles or so West of Tonopah Test.
 
Red Flag memories

Your post brought back many memories, some good, some not so good.

During my multiple Red Flags Back in the seventies, I got to see and be on-scene coordinator for a crash . Additionally My squadron lost four good men there in a ten day period.

On the good side, one of the simulated airfield targets had fresh F-100s installed and I decided I would be the first to use these new targets. I lined the pipper up on the wing to fuselage area of one of the fresh F-100s and squeezed off a rocket. As I passed over the target there was a huge explosion and fire and smoke that I had to fly thru. The F-100 was still full of fuel!

Looked like one of those WW2 gun camera films
 
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