Original subtitles

[stirring music]

- Ever since the 1950s,

rumors have swirled around a mysterious patch of land

in the southern Nevada desert.

- Federal governments spent 60 years trying to convince us

that it didn't exist.

- There are stories of UFOs, secret aerospace projects,

projects that are beyond the public's ability to understand.

- Even the president

isn't briefed on what's going on there.

- For decades, the world's been trying to find out

what secrets lie within Area 51.

- When it comes to nuclear testing, if you wanna talk about

an irradiated hot zone, this place is it.

- It's a place that may hold some very dark secrets

about medical experimentation on unwilling participants.

- It's one of the most tightly restricted areas in America.

So if you want to keep something top secret,

put it in Area 51.

- Now, we'll explore the top theories

surrounding America's most clandestine military base.

What is the US government hiding inside Area 51?

[stirring music]

- [Laurence] In the summer of 2019,

a social media event goes live.

It's called Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All Of Us.

The idea is that if enough people

rush the facility's perimeter,

someone could make it through

and reveal once and for all what's hiding inside.

- Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All Of Us

is a huge viral sensation.

And what started as almost an internet joke

turned into a serious national security issue.

- Millions of people start responding and saying,

they're going or they're interested in going.

To the point where the government is like,

we have to do something about this.

They in fact send reinforcements

to Nevada to protect the site.

There's personnel authorized to use deadly force if needed.

- The hope was that Storm Area 51 would generate

a very large crowd to overwhelm base security.

And the numbers just didn't turn out.

- The base has layers and layers of security.

And everyone who is employed there

sign non-disclosure agreements that are binding for life.

And the penalties are severe.

- The security perimeter around the facility

is functionally impregnable.

So you've got checkpoints, motion detectors,

there are guard dogs, there's armed base security personnel.

The area is constantly under the surveillance of satellites

that are passing overhead.

- The airspace over it is restricted.

They call it the box.

Even if you are a pilot at the nearby Nellis Air Force Base,

you can't fly over.

- [Laurence] It's the most secretive base

in the United States,

and it's been that way for over 70 years.

- In the early 1950s,

before there was anything called Area 51,

just this thing called Groom Lake,

which is a long, dry lake bed in the region.

The closest town, Rachel, Nevada,

very tiny, hardly anyone lives there.

- It's believed that the base got its government name

from an old Atomic Energy Commission map

that designated the area as grid 51.

- [Laurence] To the public, it's still just Groom Lake,

but in 1955, there's an obvious uptick in security.

- People who live in the surrounding area start noticing

some very strange things, lights in the sky.

Aircraft that don't look like any aircraft

that they recognize flying 50,000 feet higher

than the commercial aircraft of the time.

No one knows of any aircraft around in the 1950s

that can go that high in the air.

- This is just on the heels of the 1947 Roswell incident

where in Roswell, New Mexico,

an unidentified flying object crash landed to the ground.

Initially, the government says,

"We have found an unidentified flying object."

And that immediately is switched to,

"It was a weather balloon."

And when people sense a coverup, speculation runs rampant.

It puts this idea of UFOs

firmly in the minds of every American citizen.

- [Laurence] But the public definitely isn't imagining

what happens on November 17th, 1955.

- An airplane crashes right on the edge of Area 51.

There's an enormous explosion.

There's a huge pillar of smoke

that can be seen as far away as Las Vegas.

And news crews, as they will, go rushing

towards the scene of the tragedy to provide coverage.

They're turned away and by being turned away,

this suggested that there was something

far more secretive going on.

- The whole thing is

shrouded in secrecy.

Rumors start circulating.

Right next to Area 51 is the Nevada test site,

where the United States is testing,

detonating atomic bombs.

[bomb exploding] [stirring music]

But the proximity of this nuclear test site

make people think, well,

is this something to do with nuclear secrets?

- [Laurence] In reality, the crash is related

to a different government program hidden in the desert.

- During that time period, workers at Area 51,

they're being flown in from another state

and delivered to this secret facility.

And that's done on purpose,

because if you bring your personnel in

and they can live in base housing

or they can live in private housing

immediately adjacent to the base, well, people might talk.

- In reality, this November 17th, 1955 crash

was a crash of one of those transport planes.

But at the time, no one knew this.

And also, the local population and the journalists

really have no idea what this base

at Groom Lake's purpose is.

- All of these things just sprinkle even greater levels

of conspiratorial suspicion on a place

that's already a little bit suspicious to begin with.

- The most popular theory of what's being hidden

at this facility goes back to the early 1950s,

and it is the development

of one of America's most effective tools

during Cold War, the U-2 spy plane.

[stirring music] [airplane whirring]

- During the Cold War, the big challenge that we were facing

was that we didn't have much in the way

of human intelligence on the ground in the Soviet Union.

The kind of empirical intelligence that you needed

was photographic intel, and we needed an aircraft

that could collect photo intel.

The only problem was that the airspace over the parts

of the Soviet Union where we wanted photo intel,

well, that was well defended airspace.

The aircraft would be brought down by fighter interceptors

or surface to air missiles.

- The United States believes

that if they can build an aircraft that can fly higher

than any Soviet air defenses,

they might be able to literally overfly

Soviet territory with impunity.

And that's what leads to the development of the U-2.

- [Laurence] The U-2 spy plane is one of the country's

most important top secret military programs,

monitored closely by President Dwight D. Eisenhower himself.

- By 1956, they were successful.

They had their plane and the U-2

was now entering Soviet airspace.

And this is a big deal,

because violating another country's airspace,

especially that of your enemy,

could be seen as an act of war.

- It is highly classified.

Only a handful of people know this thing exists.

And after years and years of spying on the Soviet Union,

May, 1960, the United States' luck runs out.

- One of the CIA's U-2 pilots,

Francis Gary Powers,

took off on a flight

headed across the center

of the Soviet Union.

Powers was supposed to photograph

various missile sites,

where it looked like the Soviets might be developing

and testing high altitude rockets.

But Powers has the misfortune

of some form of engine problem

with his U-2.

He falls into the engagement envelope of Soviet Air defenses

and his aircraft is shot down.

[stirring music]

- [Reporter] On display in Moscow,

the wreckage of Pilot Francis Powers'

U-2 reconnaissance plane for Muscovites

and foreign newsmen to see.

- The US first claimed that they shot down

a off course weather airplane,

but the problem was that they had parts of the plane.

And this included cameras which had, on its reels,

images of the nuclear silos in the Soviet Union.

- Powers winds up telling them

that he's actually on a surveillance flight.

He essentially admits to what he's been up to,

and eventually Powers will be exchanged for Soviet agents

that have been captured in the United States.

- [Laurence] while the existence of the U-2 spy plane

is now public, the story behind it remains top secret,

as does the base where it was created.

A base that some experts posit is Area 51.

- At this time in the 1950s and the 1960s,

Area 51, it's not like it is today.

Today we've got tons of journalists

who are digging into Area 51,

trying to figure out what's going on there.

That interest wasn't there.

UFO enthusiasts, certainly after the Roswell incident,

are aware of various things happening in this area.

It's certainly a site of a lot of UFO sightings.

All along the way though,

the government maintains, there's nothing there.

- Ultimately in 2013, the veil of secrecy is lifted

and the government admits that Area 51 exists.

And they even put out a rudimentary map of the base.

And with this release, they acknowledge that this base

was established in 1955 to develop

high level aerospace technologies

like the U-2 spy plane.

- With all of these declassifications,

the government says all of those UFO sightings in the 1950s

and the 1960s, these glowing objects in the sky,

are explained by test flights of the U-2 spy planes.

- When you look at a U2 aircraft

and you see the huge wings,

the the silver color, the shininess,

and you throw in the fact that it was going way faster

than anyone thought aircraft could go,

and flying way higher

than anyone thought aircraft could fly,

it's no wonder people reported them as UFOs.

- Another part of the declassified materials in 2013

was that regular commute

that people were making from Lockheed's base,

known as Skunk Works, in LA to Area 51

to be working on these planes.

So here is where we suddenly get the revelation

about that plane crash into the mountainside,

just outside of Area 51.

- For the federal government,

this wraps things up very nicely.

It explains all of the theories that are out there.

The bottom line is, don't worry,

now we've told you everything you need to know.

All this UFO stuff can, you know, can be put to rest.

This is simply a facility for the development

of advanced aerospace technology.

[airplane whirring] [stirring music]

- [Laurence] But experts who studied the base for decades

believe there's far more to the story.

- Of course, people are saying to themselves,

well, wait a minute, it's great

that you're declassifying this information.

But his is about stuff that happened

back in the 50s and the 60s, what about now?

- When the Area 51 military base opens at Groom Lake, Nevada

in 1955, the land it's on already has a history

of top secret activities.

- The Nevada test site was developed

so that the American military could conduct

atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons,

something that was critically important

during the Cold War arms race.

In fact, it's revealed eventually

that the Atomic Energy Commission is conducting tests,

not within the Nevada test site, but in parcels of land

that are immediately to the north of it.

The area designated 51 at Groom Lake.

- By the time Area 51 really gets going

in an operational sense in 1955,

there have already been 32

atmospheric tests

of nuclear bombs at the Nevada test site.

Obviously there is radiation and fallout.

They have to schedule these things so that the wind

is not blowing the fallout towards Las Vegas.

Trouble is, the fallout is blowing the other way,

and it's going to Groom Lake.

- You'd think that the CIA would avoid building a base

on an area that has received all that nuclear fallout.

But what's so good about Groom Lake is that that meant

it was one of the most tightly restricted areas in America.

So it's already desolate, it's already isolated,

and it's already highly restricted.

So if you wanna keep something top secret,

put it in Groom Lake.

[stirring music]

- In 1957, the Cold War is really kind of ramping up

to a fever pitch.

And the idea is that we need to be ready for anything.

In playing out these scenarios,

the goal is to use real bombs and real people.

- During this time, there was this program,

Operation Plumbbob, which calls for no less

than 29 nuclear explosions in a four month period.

Officially, these explosions are to take place

at the Nevada test site.

But some researchers believe they take place

within Area 51 as well.

- [Laurence] According to journalist

Annie Jacobsen's book,

"Area 51: An Uncensored History

of America's Top Secret Military Base,"

the government decides to conduct

some of its most clandestine tests

deep within the top secret facility.

Because Area 51, unlike the Nevada test site,

was free from government oversight and public scrutiny.

- There are very good reasons why testing

would be moved to Area 51.

And there are some pretty powerful indications

that they played fast and loose with safety concerns.

It's believed that the US government

likely conducted some atmospheric nuclear testing

beyond the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963,

when we should no longer

have been conducting atmospheric nuclear tests.

But it sure does look like, based on evidence from Area 51,

we still did it.

All this does is it makes you question the extent

to which the site was dangerously irradiated.

- In 1993, Eileen Welsome writes a Pulitzer Prize winning

series of articles in the "Albuquerque Tribune"

where she reveals the extent

to which intentional radiation experimentation

was being done by our government on human subjects

in what is an unnamed Nevada test site.

- Well, Burt, you were out there.

How's about some comments on this radiation

I hear so much about?

- Well, for example, the other day I was out there

at 2,500 yards from ground zero

and I received one milliroentgen of radiation.

As you can see, I'm still here.

- [Laurence] There are those that believe Area 51

is the unnamed Nevada location where radiation experiments

were kept hidden from the public for decades.

- The government is reported to be feeding children

trace radioactive elements, intentionally exposing prisoners

and soldiers to radiation, injecting people with plutonium.

I mean, it's really terrible

the things that were happening to people.

And, of course,

all of this was being covered up by the government.

- Unfortunately, the United States government

has a long history of using citizens as test subjects.

There's an awful lot of military personnel that are exposed

to radiation in the 1950s

in pursuit of the pentomic army.

The idea that the army might be able to fight

on a nuclear battlefield.

And unfortunately, the government has often classified

some citizens as being more expendable than others.

Those suffering from physical or mental defects,

or even those from conditions of extreme poverty.

- In 1994, then President Bill Clinton forms a committee

specifically to look into these claims

of intentional radiation poisoning

against human subjects.

- The United States government actually did carry out

on our citizens experiments involving radiation.

- [Laurence] But according to Annie Jacobsen,

the experiments believed to be conducted at Area 51

are cloaked in such extreme secrecy,

even the Oval Office isn't in the loop.

- Even for the President, the information from Groom Lake,

specifically from Area 51, is kept classified

because it is only releasable on a need-to-know basis.

And even a President's committee

to investigate this specifically

apparently doesn't need to know.

- [Martin] There are those who believe that the reality here

is the government made a lot of people sick.

And Area 51 has been cloaked in secrecy for 75 years now

because the government doesn't want to own up to the fact

that it irradiated a lot of people,

and made a lot of people sick.

So that everything has to be top secret now

to dodge the consequences

associated with things that it did during the Cold War.

[planes whirring]

- [Laurence] Over a decade after Area 51 is established,

a significant event unfolds, not in Nevada,

but at an air base on the other side of the world.

- In 1966, the country of Iraq

is an ally of the Soviet Union.

And because of this, they have been given

a small number of MiG jets.

The MiG-21 is arguably the best fighter jet

in the world at that time.

It is the pinnacle of Soviet engineering,

and it's also super top secret.

- [Laurence] Iraqi Air Force Colonel Munir Redfa

has been cleared for a routine training flight,

but what follows will be anything but routine.

- During the Cold War, the Israeli Mossad is constantly

on the lookout for anyone who might be disaffected.

And Munir Redfa is highly decorated

from previous combat engagements.

But he believes that his career has been stymied

because he's of the Christian faith.

- Because Redfa is a Christian, he's treated as an outsider.

So, even though he's one of Iraq's most decorated pilots,

his government still does not fully trust him.

An undercover Mossad agent contacts Redfa

and makes him an incredible offer.

For $1 million, they will give him a job in Israel

and they will secretly transport his family out of Iraq.

- So they come up with a plan, that he is going to steal

one of these MiG fighter planes,

in what would become Operation Diamond,

one of the most amazing covert operations

of the 20th century.

- [Laurence] What happens next will shock the world,

and reverberate nearly 8,000 miles away at Area 51.

- When Redfa takes off, he's supposed to be completing

a very short flight to Baghdad.

But Redfa has to fly out of Iraq to Jordanian airspace.

The Iraqi air defense radar figures out

what he's up to pretty quickly.

He is challenged over the radio to turn back,

otherwise interceptor aircraft will be dispatched

to shoot him down.

- He starts flying in these crazy zigzag patterns

to evade being shot down.

He flies incredibly dangerously low with this plane.

- He's thundering along at a mere

750 feet above ground level.

The Iraqi Air Force are pursuing him.

The route that he is flying confuses them.

He's on radar one minute and then off radar the next.

They can't keep up with him.

He then eventually flies out across Turkish airspace,

out over the Mediterranean,

and then completes a turn that will take him

to his final destination, which is a secret air base

in the Negev Desert in Israel.

- [Laurence] The Mossad has been trying to get its hands

on this top secret Soviet tech for years.

And now they finally have it.

The MiG, the most advanced

Soviet fighter plane at this time.

And behind the scenes, the Americans are also desperate

to get their hands on the stolen Soviet aircraft.

- At that time, Soviet built MiGs are being used

in the skies over North Vietnam.

And in particular, the MiG-21 is a very capable interceptor.

It's fast, it's maneuverable, it's well armed.

And it's dangerous and it's causing problems

for American fighter aircraft

that are trying to fight it off.

But once you get your hands on a MiG-21,

you can essentially find out its weaknesses.

- In just a few years, the air war in Vietnam

has taken a turn.

By '68, American aircraft are shooting down MiGs

with a ratio of 13 to one in the American advantage.

- The turnaround happens so quickly,

that there was speculation that the American government

must have gotten its hands on one of these MiG planes.

And there was, of course, suspicion,

where might something like that be worked on?

Where might it take place?

Some theorists think it's Area 51.

[gentle stirring music]

- Soon after the defection of Redfa,

Soviet surveillance over Area 51 gets really ramped up.

In addition, locals report an uptick in activity

in the skies over Area 51.

Sightings of strange aircraft, very fast moving,

and repeated sonic booms.

- [Laurence] Slowly over the years,

declassified documents revealed the true story

behind the stolen MiG.

- It's really not until declassified materials in 2013,

we finally find out the US indeed

did get that MiG fighter jet from the Israelis.

The project's code name was Have Doughnut.

- The name Have Doughnut comes from the fact that the nose

of the aircraft is this one gargantuan air intake.

Because it's circular with a cone-shaped piece

in the center, to some people it looks like a donut.

- By 1968, the United States has reverse engineered

this aircraft and have their own MiGs.

It's this secret air force of MiGs,

and some people say it explains

a lot of these UFO sightings.

- Once the US built its own MiGs,

they can then study its fighting characteristics.

So US pilots were taught

to use hit and run tactics,

to have quick engagements.

And also, get out of there,

and do so by gaining altitude really fast.

This pilot training was ultimately moved

to Southern California in 1969,

and it became known as the Top Gun program.

- Because of Have Doughnut,

the United States turns the tables on the MiG.

Eventually, the US Navy and the US Air Force

shoot down 137 MiGs.

And those shoot downs were occasioned entirely

on the lessons learned from Have Doughnut.

- [Laurence] Some intelligence experts argue,

this is the main reason for area 51's extreme secrecy.

It houses stolen MiGs,

and other highly classified enemy aircraft.

Not everyone agrees.

- Stealing military aircraft from an adversary

is something that goes on pretty much all the time.

And so, people then say, well, does that really justify

the excessive secrecy at Area 51?

And why was its existence denied for years and years?

And that's led people to say,

maybe there was something else,

programs beyond anything the public can conceive.

- According to some reports,

spy plane testing at Area 51 in the 1950s and 60s

accounted for half of all UFO sightings on the West Coast.

The odd looking top secret aircraft

are believed to have fooled plenty of people.

But for many researchers, this doesn't really explain

the strangest activity people have witnessed

and continue to witness over Area 51.

They believe the real answer lies

in the testimony of one man.

- On May 15th in 1989, on local Las Vegas news,

a man gives an interview and claims that he worked

at a secret military base near Area 51,

known as S4 in southern Nevada.

And it was his job specifically to reverse engineer

anti-gravity propulsion systems from UFO technology.

- So, it was real obvious what was in the hangar.

You could see about three quarters

of the edge of the craft.

It was a typical flying saucer.

It was, I say typical,

I mean, like anything you'd see in a cartoon.

- [Reporter] According to Lazar, the United States Navy

has possession of nine alien spaceships,

one of which Lazar was assigned to analyze at Area 51.

- This is really major news.

I mean, this blows up

the conspiracy theories about Area 51.

He says that we have had alien encounters.

That what's being hidden there is not nuclear secrets,

is not spy planes, but is in fact known alien technology.

[gentle stirring music]

- According to Bob Lazar, his road to Area 51 began

when he was working at Los Alamos,

and he attended a lecture that was given

by the father of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller.

And Edward Teller then recommends that he get hired

by this company EG&G.

- EG&G has been referred to as the most important

defense contractor that you've never heard of.

And according to Lazar,

EG&G apparently has been,

since the mid 50s,

doing clandestine work at Area 51.

- [Laurence] Upon being hired by EG&G

to work at Area 51,

Lazar realizes why his employer is so secretive.

- Lazar is assigned to work at a location called S4,

which is several miles from the main base.

Lazar claims that at S4, the government has flying saucers,

anti-matter reactors, and other advanced technologies

that nobody knows about.

He says that his main job at S4 was to reverse engineer

one of the anti-gravity propulsion technologies

from this alien aircraft.

- Bob explains that

this technology is actually operational,

but nobody understands how it works.

And in fact, he says he was given a manual

for one of these ships that includes images of aliens,

which he understands to be the pilots of these ships.

- Human hands did not put this together.

The technology was far beyond anything that we had.

- [Laurence] Lazar is purportedly so blown away

by what he's seeing at work,

he can no longer keep it a secret.

- Lazar tells his friend and his wife about this.

And he says that there is one particular location

where if you climb up this mountain,

you can see on onto Area 51 airspace.

You can see where these tests

of flying saucers are taking place.

- Eventually he's caught, he's fired,

and he is told never to come back.

And after this, he begins to suspect

that maybe he's being followed.

He says his tires are slashed.

He says that people are tracking him,

and that's when he decides it's time to go public.

- [Laurence] Information soon surfaces,

calling Lazar's credibility into question.

- EG&G claims that they don't have any record

of Lazar ever working for the company.

He also claims to have attended MIT,

and they claim that they don't have

any record of him ever attending.

Los Alamos also says that Lazar never worked there,

but local reporters dig up an old phone book from Los Alamos

and Lazar's name is inside.

So they think that's proof that Lazar did in fact

work at Los Alamos.

- Now, according to Lazar,

this is all part of the government coverup.

They go in and they clear out any reference of him,

so that it looks like he's been lying.

- There are die hard Lazar supporters

who believe he is absolutely telling the truth,

that the campaign against him is a smear campaign.

He's being erased from history,

that he did work at Los Alamos, he did attend MIT.

And there's others who believe that he's a fraud,

that he is making all of this up,

that all of this is simply a pack of lies.

- [Laurence] But Lazar's testimony is not the only case

of an alleged insider claiming there are secrets

hidden within Area 51.

- Bob Lazar, however, was not the only person

to come forward and talk about his time spent at Area 51.

In 2011, in Annie Jacobsen's book,

she interviews an unnamed source

who says that he was one of five engineers

also contracted by EG&G and sent to Area 51.

This unnamed engineer's claims are incredibly similar

to Bob Lazars claims for what's going on at Area 51.

- Annie Jacobsen's source, his duties,

trying to figure out the propulsion system,

trying to reverse engineer it,

sound very similar to Bob Lazar's duties.

Also the name of the facility, Sigma 4,

or S4, and that's exactly what Bob Lazar said.

- [Laurence] In 2020, Area 51 researchers are buzzing

with excitement over a video posted on social media.

It purports to show entrances to an underground base

below Area 51, portals that didn't exist

in older satellite photos.

- A video shows what appears to be entrances

to some sort of underground facility.

And this is something new.

Comparing it with earlier satellite photographs,

they weren't there.

And there are people now who believe

the base is being extended,

but most of it's under the surface.

And that's just part of maybe

a much wider network of underground facilities,

underground bases, underground tunnels.

[gentle stirring music]

- There are very good reasons why facilities would be moved

underground at Area 51.

The fact that we now live in an era when satellites

can look at anything anytime that they want to.

If the site is going to continue as a site

where secret aerospace projects are being developed,

everything's gonna have to go underground

'cause the Russians can otherwise see it.

- Russian satellites have been watching this piece of land

since the Cold War.

So, clearly, there's something going on there

that isn't visible on the surface.

- Michael Schratt is a UFO researcher

who specializes in looking at military bases,

underground facilities that tie in with aviation.

And he believes that there is an immense

underground facility at Area 51.

- According to Schratt, there is an underground tunnel

from Area 51 all the way to Edwards Air Force Base

in California some 400 miles away.

He also claims that there's a tunnel that goes from Area 51

to Wright Air Force Base in Ohio.

And that tube would have to be almost 2,000 miles long.

It would be massive in scale.

- Schratt's thesis is not outrageous when you consider

that the era of the Cold War led to the creation

of these secret underground facilities

where senior members of the Senate,

the House of Representatives, the President,

the Vice President, and their families,

where they could go in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack.

- But you have to wonder how the government could undertake

such a massive underground construction effort

without the public finding out about it.

Schratt claims that they got away with this

because records of patents and inventions that suggest

scientists and engineers at Los Alamos came up

with a nuclear powered drill that could melt rock on contact

and could move through the ground at three miles per day.

- Hypothetically, as this drill is powering its way

through the land, it is actually melting the minerals

that it's moving through.

And leaving almost a glass like surface

on the walls behind it.

The implications of this are that there could be an entire

underground network beneath the US,

of which Area 51 is only one part.

- [Laurence] There is evidence suggesting a sprawling

underground tunnel system beneath the Nevada test site,

the government's nuclear testing facility

right next door to Area 51.

- In fact, we know that massive tunnels

have been dug at various locations.

According to one witness, under the Nevada test site

right next door to Area 51, there are all sorts of tunnels

used to move around equipment and personnel.

So if it's the case that there is a network like this

under the Nevada test site, it stands to reason

that there could well be one under Area 51.

If there is, what's it being used for?

- A lot of people think the connection to Area 51

makes it seem almost obvious,

this has something to do with alien technologies.

- In 2023, Christopher Mellon, former Deputy

under Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton

and George W. Bush, claims

that there is a whole lot of information out there

about government possession of alien technology.

And maybe actual aliens that the public needs to know about.

- [Laurence] Mellon states, the US government

should be transparent with its knowledge of UFOs.

And in 2024, he posts a redacted document,

allegedly showing a conversation between him

and a high level US intelligence official

discussing an alien spacecraft

that crashed 300 miles away from Area 51.

- So this redacted text conversation

with an unnamed government official says specifically,

that we are dealing with a recovered UAP,

an unidentified aerial phenomenon,

that was recovered from Kingman, Arizona in the 1950s.

- If this is genuine, it suggests

that there really is something to the claims

that we have encountered alien life and alien technology.

This could explain the amazing level of secrecy

surrounding Area 51, that this facility is being used

to house alien technology and maybe actual aliens.

- [Laurence] Area 51 may be the most secretive,

highly guarded base on American soil,

but it still shows up on satellite images.

- With the use of Google Earth, you can look at Area 51.

Now, some areas, critical infrastructure is blurred

so that you can't see what's actually happening there.

But Area 51 is not.

But it's what's going on inside the buildings,

and specifically the hangars at Area 51,

that's where the interesting things happen.

- Every time Google Earth updates

its images of Area 51,

researchers become very excited because they wanna see

what kind of changes have taken place

since the last time it was updated.

These researchers scour these photos

for any kind of differences.

- [Laurence] In 2020, those images show

a pretty big modification to two of the bases hangars.

- Structures are built under the existing hangars

at Area 51, these porticos that cover the existing hangars

and provide these big extensions.

These hangars were built during the development

of the F-117 stealth fighter.

Now, although that aircraft is no longer in service,

it's believed that the existing structures could be adapted

for a contemporary use,

that they could be used by modern aircraft.

Or these extensions that appeared suddenly in 2020,

they might actually be there to obscure

where secret aerospace projects are being developed.

- Some theorists think these new kinds of hangars

are designed to house something pretty different.

Maybe rather than housing

a small number of really big aircraft,

they might be housing a really big number

of very small aircraft.

That this could be advanced technology

that the Air Force doesn't want us to know about,

waves of tiny aircraft that can attack simultaneously.

[stirring music]

- This drone swarm is in its infancy.

I mean, we see in a very sort of low tech,

but highly effective way,

tanks and armored vehicles being destroyed

by drones in the war in Ukraine.

And using AI, they would act as a single entity,

but it's almost like a giant robot.

It's arguably going to be the next generation of warfare.

- [Martain] So what is it about these new structures

that suggest drone swarm?

Some researchers believe that the layout of the new hangars

is structured in such a way that a drone swarm

can be activated, it can then exit the structure.

It can fly a simulated combat mission,

and then return to the structure

and fly in from the other side.

It would be pretty difficult for operators

to manage a big drone swarm.

And the layout of this facility suggests

that it was created to make it easier to do that.

- [Laurence] While there's no proof

of such an experimental program underway,

there have allegedly been strange sightings

in the Nevada skies ever since 2020

when the hangars were modified.

- There've been some new sightings over Area 51

that kind of seem like they could connect to this idea.

One person reported seeing

over 100 individual UFOs,

almost all just at the same time.

Someone described a fireball within a cube.

- In the fall of 2024, another witness reported seeing

strange lights every single night

consecutive for two months at Area 51.

- [Laurence] The timing leaves some to wonder

if what was happening over Area 51 could be related

to the rash of alleged drone sightings at the end of 2024

that had experts baffled from coast to coast.

- This gets a lot bigger than just the Nevada desert,

because we have started getting reports

of drones being spotted everywhere.

This came to a head in November of 2024 in New Jersey,

where many, many people were seeing drones,

unexplained multiple drones at a time.

We got social media postings, uploaded videos,

all about these drones in New Jersey.

- Local law enforcement and various government officials

claimed to have no idea what's going on.

But if this is some kind of black op

or something that's being developed in Area 51,

it's not as though the government

is gonna let us know about it.

- To this day, we still don't know

what's happening at Area 51.

This history of secrecy associated with Groom Lake,

it extends into the present.

It's not something that belongs to the 1950s.

It's not something that belongs to the previous century

and the era of the Cold War,

it's something that belongs to today.

[stirring music]

- Is Area 51 hiding some kind of

extraterrestrial evidence?

Or is the intense secrecy

intended to protect

more traditional military secrets?

We may never know.

Then again, the government once refused

to say Area 51 even existed.

Perhaps with time,

the truth will finally be revealed.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."

[stirring music]