A restricted military area or military out-of-bounds area is an area under military jurisdiction where special security measures are used to prevent unauthorized entry.[1]
Legal restrictions
editRestricted military areas are associated with strict legal restrictions. In Australia, military bases cannot be sketched, drawn, photographed and people who do so are subject to 6 months imprisonment. Even approaching a base with equipment capable of doing those things is forbidden.[2] In the United States, trespass of a military base without permission is punishable by six months imprisonment.[3]
Restricted military areas have been relied upon as a legal justification for the eviction of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.[4]
In popular culture
editRestrictions against access to military bases has been a source of pop-culture myths, as in the case of Area 51 in the United States.[5] Classified activities on such bases and the secrecy surrounding those activities have captured public imagination. One such example is the Roswell incident, where debris from a classified military balloon became a UFO myth.[6][7]
Works of fiction have been written about prominent military bases. The Australian TV series Pine Gap is one such series; with a narrative centring on joint defence operations at the international intelligence facility Pine Gap, south-west of Alice Springs, Australia.[8]
List of notable restricted military areas
editThe following is a list of notable restricted military areas:
| Name | Country | Restricted since | Note | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area 51 | United States | 1955 | Acquired initially in 1955 by the USAF and CIA for the purpose of flight testing Lockheed U-2 aircraft | 
|
| Brdy | Czech Republic | 1925 | Range of hills, mostly covered by forest | 
|
| Penhale Sands | United Kingdom | 1939 | The restricted military area, Penhale Camp, is found on the northern part of the dunes | 
|
| Pine Gap | Australia | 1970 | Partly run by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), US National Security Agency (NSA), and US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and is a key contributor to the NSA's global interception/surveillance effort, which included the ECHELON program
Central Australia was chosen because it was too remote for spy ships passing in international waters to intercept its signals |
|
| Woomera Prohibited Area | Australia | 1947 | Initially used as the site of Britain's rocket testing program. Nuclear tests were carried out for Britain also seven times between 1956 and 1963. Aboriginal Australians were forcibly relocated from the site
In modern times it is used by the UK, USA, and Australia for testing |
|
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "restricted area". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ^ "DEFENCE ACT 1903 - SECT 82 Sketching etc. of fortifications prohibited". classic.austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
- ^ "1634. Protection Of Government Property -- Military Bases". www.justice.gov. 2015-02-19. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
- ^ AFP. "After Israel ruling, West Bank Palestinian families fear evictions 'at any time'". Khaleej Times. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
- ^ "The Real Story Behind the Myth of Area 51, America's Most Famous Top-Secret Military Base". Popular Mechanics. 2023-03-23. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
- ^ Olmsted 2009, p. 184: Olmsted writes "When one of these balloons smashed into the sands of the New Mexico ranch, the military decided to hide the project's real purpose." In 1994 and 1997, official government reports (Weaver & McAndrew 1995) concluded (p. 9) "... the material recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon device and most likely from one of the MOGUL balloons that had not been previously recovered."
- ^ Frazier 2017: "Flight 4 was launched June 4, 1947, from Alamogordo Army Air Field and tracked flying northeast toward Corona. It was within 17 mi [27 km] of the Brazel ranch when contact was lost."
- ^ Knox, David (14 September 2017). "Pine Gap thriller for ABC, Netflix". TV Tonight. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
Further reading
edit- Frazier, Kendrick (16 July 2017). "Roswell myth lives on despite the established facts". Albuquerque Journal. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
- Olmsted, Kathryn S. (2009). "Chapter 6: Trust No One: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories from the 1970s to the 1990s". Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. Oxford University Press. pp. 173–204. ISBN 978-0199753956. Archived from the original on 2016-11-23. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
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