US military project

Sources

• Forevt-orion-first-flight
  Orion first flight, China Lake

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

• Forevi-boeing-patent
  Boeing US7142971B2 — uninterruptible automatic control

  Confirmed patent disclosure. Claims include remote initiation, dedicated comms distinct from other aircraft communications, disabled onboard override, and automatic landing at a predetermined (including military) site.

• Forevi-cubic-patent
  Cubic US6641087B1 — anti-hijack remote pilot

  Confirmed patent. Activation onboard or by remote override; deactivate normal pilot control; uplink airspeed/altitude/fuel; optional disable of ordinary communications; CVR/FDR upload. USPTO: 4-year fee 4 May 2007, 8-year fee 4 May 2011, expired 4 Nov 2015 for later non-payment. In force on 8 March 2014. No installation evidence in this archive.

• Fororg-magic
  MAGIC

  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.

• Fororg-big-safari
  645 AESG / BIG SAFARI

  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.

• Forclaim-safari-ecosystem
  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.

• Forclaim-third-party
  Third-party intervention cannot be excluded

  Quoted residual from the 2018 report. Not a finding that it happened.

• Forthy-remote
  External / uninterruptible autopilot on 9M-MRO

  Boeing US7142971B2 and Cubic US6641087B1 describe remote engagement, disconnected cockpit controls, dedicated links. No maintenance/mod/certification record currently in this archive places that architecture on 9M-MRO.

• Forthy-isr-architecture
  A BIG SAFARI collection architecture around MH370

  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.

• Forclaim-dechangy-intercept
  Florence de Changy: US / AWACS intercept over the South China Sea

  Netflix episode 3. Sensitive cargo, jamming in the FIR gap, an ignored land-now order, a shoot-down before Chinese airspace. Location is inconsistent with western-Indian-Ocean debris.

• Againstthy-pilot
  Flight-crew diversion

  The 2018 report says the turn-back likely resulted from manual inputs. It does not identify a crew member as perpetrator and did not treat the home simulator as a plan.

• Againstclaim-manual-inputs
  The diversion likely resulted from manual inputs

  Official 2018 consensus. Who made the inputs is not identified. Mechanical-only stories are a poor fit for a coherent reverse course plus comms dropout.

• Relatedclaim-bridge-missing
  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.

• Relatedclaim-orion-no-payload-first-flight
  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.

• Relatedclaim-gorgon-multi-host
  Gorgon Stare’s podded architecture was designed for more than MQ-9

  HASC 113-102: open/podded architecture permitted integration on multiple aircraft types. Aviation Week 2010 named it as a potential MAGIC payload. An Orion installation by 8 March 2014 is not shown.

• Relateddoc-hasc-113-102
  HASC Report 113-102 — Gorgon Stare to recapitalise Blue Devil

  Primary Congressional source: Gorgon Stare is the USAF’s only operational persistent day/night WAMI capability and the logical programme to recapitalise Blue Devil technologies, capabilities and lessons learned. Directed evolution into WAMI + near-vertical direction-finding SIGINT, leveraging Blue Devil PED. Report due 14 February 2014 — 22 days before MH370.

• Relatedx-contractors-2014
  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.

• Relatedx-bluedevil-brief-2026
  Blue Devil, MAGIC, Orion, BIG SAFARI — 2014 window

  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.

• Relatedx-magic-docs-2014
  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.

• Relatedq-diego-garcia
  What can be documented at Diego Garcia on 7–8 March 2014?

  HA08 North’s trunk failed in March 2014 about 189 km off Diego Garcia; UCT-2 was on the atoll doing near-shore HDAS anode work in 110 ft of water. Sensor, SIGINT, satellite-downlink and aircraft records for 7–8 March are still the question — not a finding.

• Relatedq-bridge
  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.

• Relatedq-orion-payload
  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.

• Relatedq-remote-feasibility
  Did 9M-MRO have any path for external flight-control commands?

  Patents prove the concept. The test is hardware/software, SATCOM/data-link, power architecture, and maintenance/modification records on this tail.

• Relateddoc-working-report
  MH370 / US Military ISR Working Research Report v1

  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.

• Relatedevi-7th-arc
  The 7th arc

  BTO range ring at the last transmission. Official and Ocean Infinity boxes are arguments about a segment of this arc plus a stand-off. It is not a crash pin.

• Relatedevi-flaperon
  Right flaperon — Réunion

  First physical evidence. Internal part numbers traced through EADS CASA to 9M-MRO. A 777 flaperon does not drift from Kazakhstan or the South China Sea to Réunion.

• Relateddoc-malay-2018
  Safety Investigation Report — MH370

  The official accident report. Cause undetermined. Diversion likely from manual inputs; third-party intervention not excluded; 00:19 log-on treated as fuel exhaustion. No wreckage, no recorders.

• Relatedx-selig-gorgon
  Michael Selig testimony — Diego Garcia, Gorgon Stare, cold plasma

  Nic Moneypenny notes a written and recorded account by Michael Selig, former fast-jet pilot who flew into Diego Garcia, describing an MH370 end-state, a leaked video, Gorgon Stare and scalar / plasma language.

• Relatedper-de-changy
  Florence de Changy

  French correspondent. Netflix episode 3: US/AWACS intercept in the South China Sea over cargo. Location conflicts with African debris if those identifications stand.

• Relatedfilm-netflix-disappeared
  MH370: The Plane That Disappeared

  Louise Malkinson’s three-part series gives one episode to each of three tellings: the pilot, a Russian hijack (Jeff Wise), and a US intercept (Florence de Changy). Families and Malaysia Airlines crisis staff are interviewed. It is a survey of hypotheses, not a finding.

• Relatedevi-freescale
  Twenty Freescale employees on MH370

  Confirmed passenger fact. Project assignments, especially defence/avionics/inertial work, are unresolved. FXAS21000 gyro sampling in July 2013 is an adjacent product date only.

• Relatedevt-blue-devil-stop
  Blue Devil II stopped; hardware to Greenville

  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.

• Relatedorg-gorgon-stare
  Gorgon Stare

  Developed through BIG SAFARI. Increment 2 is ARGUS-derived EO plus Exelis IR. Congress treated the podded/open architecture as integrable on more than one aircraft type. MQ-9 is the documented host; an Orion fit by 8 March 2014 is open. 2013 OSD figure: 2 fps, not 6.

• Relatedorg-blue-devil
  Blue Devil I / II

  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.

• Relatedorg-orion
  Aurora Orion RPA

  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.

• Relatedorg-angel-fire
  Angel Fire

  USAF/SOCOM WAAS system. Congressional documentation describes Blue Devil Block 1 as integrating Angel Fire-derived wide-area imagery with signals intelligence on manned aircraft. Confirmed as the WAAS ancestor in this family, not as an MH370 collector.

• Relatedclaim-magic-continued
  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.

• Relatedevi-gorgon-fps
  Gorgon Stare documented at 2 fps, not 6 fps

  Primary pre-MH370 report labels Gorgon Stare 2 fps versus 30 fps FMV. A claimed ~6 fps match to Increment 2 is not established, pending an Increment-2 specification.

• Relatedevi-radar-latency
  West-track disclosure lag — ministerial 10:30, ARCC 22:30, Thai 9–10 days

  Hishammuddin 1 May 2014: military radar playback ~08:30 MYT 8 March, Air Force ops ~09:00, minister informed ~10:30 of a possible turn-back; a military aircraft west at 10:54. KL ARCC was not informed by RMAF of the western last-known until 22:30 MYT — a roughly 12-hour operational gap. Thai Surat Thani radar disclosed 18–19 March.

• Relateddoc-4orbs
  4ORBS — Ashton Forbes video knowledge base

  Structured archive extracted from 824 Ashton Forbes videos. Distinguishes extracted claims from proof. Every material proposition still has to be traced to the original document or video.

• Relatedclaim-cubic-maintained
  Cubic remote-pilot patent was maintained through March 2014

  US6641087B1: 4-year fee 4 May 2007, 8-year fee 4 May 2011, expired 4 Nov 2015 for later non-payment. Continuation US10/684,316 abandoned 18 Jan 2007. IP interest retained; prototype/certification still OPEN.

• Relatedboard-theatre
  US military presence in theatre, 7–9 March 2014

  Working chart of publicly documented US assets around MH370: USS Pinckney already in the South China Sea and diverted to search on 8 March; a Kadena P-3C announced the same day; USS Kidd joined. Guam RQ-4, Diego Garcia sensors, EP-3E, RC-135 and exact 7–9 March sortie lists remain open. Presence is not the same as tracking 9M-MRO.

• Relatedboard-remote
  Remote-control claims versus evidence gaps

  Working chart: unmanned flight of a fighter-class jet was demonstrated in 2013; Boeing’s uninterruptible-autopilot patent exists; Hugo Teso showed an FMS proof-of-concept the same year. Boeing told Malaysian investigators there was no commercial implementation on the 2002 delivery. Radar proves a turn at IGARI, not who commanded it. Ten data requests remain.

• Relatedevi-pinckney
  USS Pinckney (DDG 91) diverted from South China Sea training to search

  Confirmed. Pinckney was already at sea in the South China Sea on a training and maritime-security task, then ordered toward Vietnam’s southern coast after MH370 was missing. Helicopters flew search sorties from 9 March. Pre-search combat-system logs are not public.

• Relatedevi-qf16
  Boeing / USAF QF-16 unmanned full-scale demonstration, 2013

  Confirmed capability. A QF-16 flew unmanned, including supersonic flight and landing, as a full-scale aerial target. That kills the slogan ‘nothing that size could be flown remotely in 2014.’ It does not place a remote architecture on a commercial 777.

• Relatedevi-ha08
  CTBTO HA08 North at Diego Garcia went dark in March 2014

  Confirmed by CTBTO. The northern hydroacoustic segment of HA08, off Diego Garcia, suffered a trunk-cable fault in March 2014 about 189–190 km from shore, more than a kilometre and a half down. HA08 South continued. North stayed silent for twelve years. A conventional splash in the southern Indian Ocean is not thereby erased — Cape Leeuwin (HA01) and HA08 South remained in the network.

• Relatedevi-boeing-navair
  Boeing–NAVAIR delivery order signed 4 March 2014

  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.

• Relatedq-theatre-dossiers
  Which of the ten theatre dossiers can actually be pulled?

  The forensic board’s bottom row: 4 March Boeing statement of work; P-8/P-3 7–8 March sortie logs; Global Hawk records; Pinckney/Kidd pre-search tracks; JORN operating/tasking logs; SBIRS retrospective; Five Eyes MH370 correspondence; Boeing performance datasets; 9M-MRO avionics/mod configuration; early US intel reporting.

• Relatedboard-radar-cyber
  The radar story and the 9 March cyberattack

  Two panels. Left: civilian secondary, Malaysian military primary, Thai paint disclosed ten days later, and the 12-hour lag before the civilian rescue centre was told. Right: one day after the loss, officials on the investigation were hit with a spear-phish that CyberSecurity Malaysia later said stole classified material toward an IP in China. Presence of a hack is confirmed as that agency’s public account. What was in the take — and whether it included radar — is still open.

• Relatedboard-cyber
  Two waves of MH370-themed cyberattacks

  Working chart of two separate campaigns. Attack one: 9 March spear-phish of officials at the Department of Civil Aviation, National Security Council and Malaysia Airlines — CyberSecurity Malaysia’s public account, disclosed in August. Attack two: MyCERT alerts on 24 March and 18 April about MH370-themed backdoors and a fake investigation-transcript phish aimed more widely. Destination IP in China is not the same as a finding that Beijing ran the operation.

• Relatedevt-csm-hack
  Investigation networks spear-phished the day after MH370 vanished

  Confirmed as CSM’s public account. On 9 March, officials at the Department of Civil Aviation, the National Security Council and Malaysia Airlines were sent malware disguised as a news article that the aircraft had been found. About thirty computers were infected. Outbound mail carrying confidential files, including meeting minutes and classified documents, some related to MH370, was traced to an IP in China. CSM shut the machines down and asked Chinese providers to block the traffic. Police and Interpol were involved. What exactly was stolen is still unpublished.

• Relatedevi-bd764-be144
  BD764 and BE144 — named radar feeds, and a gap after 18:02:59 UTC

  The working chart labels two Malaysian Air Defence datasets: BD764 (secondary, 10-second intervals, early flight, ends 01:21 MYT with the transponder) and BE144 (primary, 10-second intervals, westbound after the turn, ends 18:02:59 UTC). The 2018 reconstruction then shows a last military return at 18:22:12 UTC after a gap. Those later points exist in the official track. Their raw source is not public.

• Relatedq-hack-documents
  What was actually taken on 9 March — and did it include radar?

  CSM said minutes of crisis meetings and classified documents, some related to MH370. The working chart asks whether radar information or discussions of the turn-back were in that set. No public loot list answers it. A negative would also be a finding.