Restricted military area

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]

Restricted 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]

Restrictions 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

The 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

References
  1. "restricted area". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
  2. "DEFENCE ACT 1903 - SECT 82 Sketching etc. of fortifications prohibited". classic.austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  3. "1634. Protection Of Government Property -- Military Bases". www.justice.gov. 2015-02-19. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  4. AFP. "After Israel ruling, West Bank Palestinian families fear evictions 'at any time'". Khaleej Times. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  5. "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.
  6. 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."
  7. 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."
  8. Knox, David (14 September 2017). "Pine Gap thriller for ABC, Netflix". TV Tonight. Retrieved 29 October 2018.

Sources
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