Resources

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

MH370 Daily Research — working papers

18 September 2026

Working ISR report, source ledger and master chronology gathered the same day, with a cited-URL set pointing at contemporary MAGIC, Orion and Gorgon Stare reporting.

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.

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.

FY2013 NDAA Sec. 927 — integrated SIGINT / WAMI plan

Congressional Record 12 Dec 2012 · ISR Task Force plan due 1 Jan 2013

Statute required a plan for operationally integrated SIGINT able to detect, track and precisely geolocate high-band devices and immediately cue imagery. Named Army Guardrail / ARGUS A160, USAF Blue Moon QRC and DARPA WAND. Consult NSA and USSOCOM.

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.

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.

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.

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.

MAGIC JCTD initiated

FY2010 Q3 · OSD/DDR&E

Competition among five defence-industry partners. $5m initial to AFRL. CENTCOM persistent-ISR sponsorship in Aurora’s 2010 release.

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.

Orion first flight, China Lake

24 August 2013 · ~3.5 hours · 8,000 ft · no mission payload

Remote launch from GCS. Air vehicle and command link demonstrated. ISR stack not yet fitted.

Source archive index

18 September 2026 · source register

Index of the important sources in the ISR investigation, with a status for each: full text, targeted extract, archived copy, snapshot, lead only, or still to be upgraded.

What sensors were actually on Orion by March 2014?

Orion was selected as MAGIC’s multi-day, multi-sensor ISR aircraft. First flight had no mission system; flight 18 (Dec 2014) carried ballast. Those two points do not empty the aircraft. Sorties 2–17, including March 2014, are the hole. Gorgon Stare / MTS-B / VADER remain live leads, not closed fits.

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.

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, MAGIC, Orion, BIG SAFARI — 2014 window

Briefing collages, 18 September 2026

Nic Moneypenny published investigation collages placing Blue Devil (including an egg-shaped airship), MAGIC, Aurora Orion, BIG SAFARI, Lockheed and DARPA in the same 2013–14 spending window as MH370, with Freescale’s last gyro presentation among the plates.

Boeing–NAVAIR delivery order signed 4 March 2014

$955,853.54 · N0001914D0012 · engineering/technical support · St Louis

Confirmed public contracting record, four days before MH370. Department of the Navy, Naval Air Systems Command, NAICS aircraft manufacturing, PSC R425 professional engineering/technical support. Subject of the order is not in the public header. Chronology is not a collection event.

Forensic evidence board — facts, capabilities, missing dossiers

Working chart of intersections · ten target records still outstanding

Cork-board reconstruction: Malaysian military radar and MH370 data on one side; QF-16 2013, UAV/UAS patents, JORN, Kadena P-8A/P-3C, Inmarsat SATCOM and Boeing range models on the other. The bottom row is the live request list — Boeing’s 4 March statement of work, sortie logs, Global Hawk, Pinckney/Kidd tracks, JORN tasking, SBIRS, Five Eyes correspondence, 9M-MRO avionics configuration.

Orion 80-hour remotely controlled flight

December 2014 · 1,000 lb ballast · fuel for ~37 more hours

Contractor-confirmed endurance after MH370. This was flight 18 and carried 1,000 lb of ballast. Shows the air vehicle matured; does not rewind payload status to March.

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems

ISIS radar · MTS for USAF UAVs · large classified SAS bookings

Radar on ISIS; MTS-B is an Orion payload lead. 2013 SAS booked $210m MTS for USAF UAVs and $862m classified. Those totals do not establish an MH370/MAGIC contract.

USAF, Lockheed, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Kratos — 2014 contractors plate

Published collage naming USAF and four prime contractors against the MH370 date. Nic’s caption: the US military exercise around MH370 has not been fully accounted for in public.