Resources

FY2013 Endurance UAV budget jumped via Congressional adds, not a hidden presidential request

PE 0305205F: previous PB $21m → $74.126m. MAGIC $50m add; Endurance UAV Base $9.893m. Documented. Who sponsored the add remains open.

USAF PB2020 — MAGIC/Orion continued after 2014

PE 0305205F · Congressional adds FY2015–FY2018

MAGIC/Orion did not fade from the budget after 2014. Adds: $20m FY2015, $5m FY2016, $50m FY2017, $40m FY2018, on top of $19m FY2012 and $50m FY2013. Post-2016 money was for airworthiness, cybersecurity, interoperability and mission capability toward a deployable Block 1 Orion.

MAGIC/Orion continued in USAF development after 2014

Confirmed by PB2020. Congressional adds through FY2018. The ‘faded after 2014’ formulation is a correction, not a secrecy finding.

Business Case Analysis of MAGIC UAV System

Naval Postgraduate School thesis · public PDF

Academic model of MAGIC as long-range ISR, not a named communications-relay payload. The $510m RDT&E figure in the thesis is an academic model, not an official acquisition estimate.

What were the two MAGIC JUON numbers and the FY2012/13 add sponsors?

USAF says two Joint Urgent Operational Needs for long dwell / persistent ISR. Exact numbers, submitting commands, and the $19m / $50m Congressional language are unresolved.

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.

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.

MH370 Research Master Log

Investigation chronology · 18–20 September 2026

Running chronology of findings: cargo, 2011–2013 ISR programmes, radar disclosure on the westbound track, MAGIC budget exhibits, and the alleged-video file.

OSD PB2012 — MAGIC JCTD primary record

PE 0603648D8Z · pp. 32–33 · USCENTCOM sponsor

Primary OSD budget exhibit: MAGIC is a USCENTCOM-sponsored JCTD. 120-hour sortie, nominal 1,000 lb / maximum 2,600 lb at 15,000 ft. Modular payload classes: EO/IR, SIGINT, GMTI, wide-area surveillance, communications relay, strike. Transition named to USAF 303rd AESW.

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.

A specific MH370 collection event is not yet on the record — and is not ruled out

MAGIC/Orion, Gorgon Stare and Blue Devil form a documented overlapping family under BIG SAFARI. That family is not, by itself, a platform, sensor or sortie on 8 March 2014. The same material does not rule such a deployment out.

Aurora Orion RPA

Twin-diesel MALE UAS · China Lake first flight 24 Aug 2013

Selected air vehicle for MAGIC: a multi-day, medium-altitude remotely piloted ISR platform designed to carry multiple sensors. First flight (24 Aug 2013) had no mission system; the December 2014 endurance record carried ballast. Those two flights do not decide what was fitted on sorties 2–17, including March 2014.

Blue Devil I / II

Operational Block 1 WAAS + SIGINT · Block 2 residuals to BIG SAFARI

Block 1 was operational: manned aircraft carrying Angel Fire-derived wide-area imagery integrated with SIGINT. Block 2, the airship, was terminated — but its equipment, including GFE, was packed and sent to a BIG SAFARI facility in Greenville, Texas, available for other programmes. The technology did not vanish with the airship.

Blue Devil II stopped; hardware to Greenville

Payload stop 4 Jan 2012 · pack-out May 2012 · storage Q4 FY2012

Airship programme killed. Equipment packed and transferred to a BIG SAFARI-managed facility in Greenville, Texas. Components were available for other projects. Residual parts were later absorbed into other Air Force programmes.

ISIS

Integrated Sensor Is Structure · DARPA/USAF airship radar

Same PE as MAGIC. Lockheed integrator, Raytheon radar, ~$400–462m. Stratospheric airship with very large low-power radar. Confirmed programme; no evidence of MH370 collection.

MAGIC, Aurora and Boeing/NRL patents drop from the paper trail in 2014

Follow-up briefing: Aurora’s remote-operation work for the US military from about 2010; MAGIC and several Boeing and NRL patents then become hard to find in open documents in 2014. Redacted Blue Devil letters are shown with matching date cut-offs.

MH370 / US Military ISR Working Research Report v1

Working paper · 18 September 2026

Working paper on US military ISR programmes in the MH370 window: MAGIC, Orion, Gorgon Stare, Blue Devil and remote-control patents, read as one overlapping family under BIG SAFARI. The family is documented. A specific MH370 collection is not established and is not ruled out.

Orion’s first flight carried no mission system

Confirmed by contemporary September 2013 reporting and consistent with PB2015’s FY2014 “best of breed” sensor-selection language. December 2014 endurance attempt was flight 18 with 1,000 lb ballast — also not an ISR-payload demonstration. Those two flights do not decide what Orion was, and they do not decide March 2014.

What is the bridge from the ISR family to MH370?

Gorgon Stare, Blue Devil and MAGIC/Orion are a documented family under BIG SAFARI. The open question is one specific platform, sensor, command link, contract, deployment or test event in both that family and the MH370 window. Until that object is found, involvement is not established — and is not ruled out.

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.