Resources

645 AESG / BIG SAFARI

USAF rapid acquisition — the office that binds this family

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.

L-3 Greenville awarded Blue Devil 2 integration / test

FA8620-06-G-4003 / order 1157 · $12.054m · 17 Aug 2011

L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Greenville, Texas, paid for BD2 airship integration and test support. Later Q4 FY2012 storage was also at a 645 AESG-managed Greenville facility. Geographic coincidence is not a custody finding.

USAF 303rd AESW

Named MAGIC transition organisation in OSD PB2012

OSD planned to provide MAGIC core technologies to the 303rd Aeronautical Systems Wing for further development of a deployable long-endurance UAS. Confirmed as a named office; later 645 AESG / BIG SAFARI execution is a separate fact.

A BIG SAFARI collection architecture around MH370

The family is documented. A specific 8 March operation is open.

Gorgon Stare, Blue Devil and MAGIC/Orion are one overlapping ISR family under 645 AESG / BIG SAFARI: same office, overlapping WAMI/SIGINT sensors, reusable GFE through Greenville, and a podded architecture meant to move between airframes. That family is confirmed. Whether any of it collected MH370 is not established and is not ruled out.

MAGIC

Medium Altitude Global ISR and Communications

USAF endurance-ISR programme. Air vehicle: Aurora Orion. Office: 645 AESG / BIG SAFARI — the same rapid-acquisition group that ran Gorgon Stare and took Blue Devil residuals. Confirmed as a multi-day ISR platform in that family. A specific MH370 operation is not established and is not ruled out.

Aurora Orion contract FA8620-12-C-3027

~$86.56m aggregated · completion extending to 2019

Public award aggregation for the BIG SAFARI / Orion definitive contract. Transaction-level FPDS history — especially modifications August 2013–March 2014 — is still open. Budget authority, ceilings and obligations are not the same as cash spent.

Blue Devil I operational demonstration ends

31 December 2013 · four King Airs returning to Leidos

Attributed via Inside the Air Force, 22 Jan 2014, quoting USAF officials. The four leased King Airs were returning to Leidos, so the original Afghanistan fleet was not an operational candidate on 8 March 2014. The multi-INT sensor package remained US Government property and was being assessed for reassignment (MC-12 and MQ-9 mentioned, not selected). The sensors did not disappear with the lease.

Gorgon Stare, Blue Devil and MAGIC/Orion are one overlapping ISR family under BIG SAFARI

Confirmed by Congressional and USAF budget records. Same office, overlapping sensors (WAMI, SIGINT, airborne processing), shared GFE path through Greenville, and a podded architecture meant to move between airframes. Not isolated programmes that happen to share a decade.

Greenville, Texas

BIG SAFARI facility · Blue Devil II GFE available for other programmes

Q4 FY2012 destination of stopped Blue Devil II airship equipment, including government-furnished components. FY2014 USAF budget language: components available for other projects. Later inventory, including March 2014, is not published.

Orion flight 18 — 80-hour record with 1,000 lb ballast

December 2014 · not an ISR-payload demonstration

Aurora’s endurance attempt was flight 18 and carried 1,000 lb of ballast. Maiden flight (no mission system) and this record flight both fail as evidence of an operational ISR stack. Payload on flights 2–17 remains open.

Where did Blue Devil residual components go?

Block 2 equipment, including government-furnished components, was packed and transferred to a BIG SAFARI-managed facility in Greenville, Texas, available for other projects. Residual parts were absorbed into other Air Force programmes. Later inventory — including March 2014 — is not published.