645 AESG / BIG SAFARI
USAF rapid acquisition — the office that binds this family
CORE organisation
645 AESG / BIG SAFARI ran specialised rapid-development ISR. It executed MAGIC, developed Gorgon Stare, and took Blue Devil equipment into a facility it managed at Greenville, Texas. That is the documented organisational centre of this technology family, not a coincidence of names.
Congressional documentation identifies the 645th Aeronautical Systems Group / BIG SAFARI as responsible for specialised rapid-development ISR systems. MAGIC execution was assigned to the BIG SAFARI SPO. Gorgon Stare was developed through the same office. After Blue Devil Block II was stopped, USAF budget records state that its equipment — including government-furnished components — was packed and transferred to a BIG SAFARI-managed facility in Greenville, Texas, with components available for other projects or programmes. DODIG-2013-128 adds that residual Blue Devil components were absorbed into other Air Force programmes. The office is therefore the common manager of the air vehicle (Orion), the wide-area sensor (Gorgon Stare) and the leftover Blue Devil GFE. That does not, by itself, put any of them on 8 March 2014. It does mean they should be read as one family, not as isolated projects.
Sources
- USAF PB2015 PE 0305205F
- DODIG-2013-128 Blue Devil Block 2
Related
MAGIC
Medium Altitude Global ISR and Communications
Gorgon Stare
BIG SAFARI wide-area surveillance · podded, not MQ-9-only
Blue Devil I / II
Operational Block 1 WAAS + SIGINT · Block 2 residuals to BIG SAFARI
Where did Blue Devil residual components go?
Gorgon Stare, Blue Devil and MAGIC/Orion are one overlapping ISR family under BIG SAFARI
Greenville, Texas
BIG SAFARI facility · Blue Devil II GFE available for other programmes
MH370 / US Military ISR Working Research Report v1
Working paper · 18 September 2026
Angel Fire
Wide-area airborne surveillance · lineage into Blue Devil Block 1
A BIG SAFARI collection architecture around MH370
The family is documented. A specific 8 March operation is open.
A specific MH370 collection event is not yet on the record — and is not ruled out
USAF 303rd AESW
Named MAGIC transition organisation in OSD PB2012
Aurora Orion contract FA8620-12-C-3027
~$86.56m aggregated · completion extending to 2019