Large Blast Thermal Simulator (LBTS)

USA / New Mexico / Socorro /
 military, proving ground
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Built in 1994 to simulate both the airblast and thermal environments of a nuclear detonation.
www.harker.org/uploaded/faculty/ericn/LBTS/lbts.html
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°47'29"N   106°40'42"W

Comments

  • possible assembly site for missiles as well.
  • et maybe?
  • Looks like a tunnel opening. Underground storage of some kind?
  • rocket engines test site? just guessing
  • nope. tunnel is close. not used for storage.
  • hint: there's a concrete slab on the south end of the "tunnel"
  • is it used for testing "bunker buster" munitions?
  • You don't have to go to Iraq to test and assemble missles and WMD you can do it right here in the United States in our homestate of New Mexico.
  • this is cenrum in udergraund
  • think of a gun, with the tunnel being a barrel, of sorts. the slab is significant at the opposite end.
  • Massive Railgun installation . . . needs large area for development and generation of power as well as containment if something was to go wrong . . . southern end is the target . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun
  • Air Tunnel
  • Looks like a laser testing facility
  • Wind Tunnel. I've seen them before. Quite common.
  • No. I'm wrong. This looks like an entrance to an underground installation/facility.
  • there is clearly a blast zone on the southern end... like something came rushing out very very fast ;)
  • I've been inside this thing. Funny story. There was an owl inside up in the louvers of the giant doors on the southern end. First time I saw a wild owl fairly up close.
  • It is a facility used to simulate the high pressure thermal impact created when a Nuclear device is detonated on various military equipment and material. Enormous pressurized containers of superheated air are released in a confined space that is a controlled 'test environment' and it's effects are observed on the item/materials being tested. More controlled than an ACTUAL nuclear blast, and more Eco-friendly as well. As some have said, when a test occurs, the air escaping the far end is so hot it causes the surrounding desert brush to spontaneously ignite.
  • LBTS Linky @ GlobalSecurity.Org http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/sim-thermal.htm
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This article was last modified 14 years ago