Flight test cancelled at Groom Lake for a “Watchdog Tango” condition.
Michał Rokita, is an aviation spotter and photographer who often travel to remote spots, on public land, in Nevada from where he can have a look at flying activities at Tonopah Test Range or Groom Lake, two of the world’s most secretive airfields.
In 2023, “n01_b4_flash” (Rokita’s nickname on Youtube) filmed a pair of F-117s that launched for a mission in the range as well as some Janet B737 and Beech King Air aircraft; in April 2024, he made another trip to the desert and reached a spotting point in the hills surrounding Tonopah from where he filmed arrivals and departures of scheduled JANET flights, two F-117s, an unidentified L-100 (civilian Hercules variant) crossing TTR airspace and another pretty mysterious aircraft.
Rokita has recently uploaded another YouTube video from his desert adventures series. The latest one is from the October 2023 trip, and was filmed from Tikaboo Peak, an 8,000 ft mountain located approximately 26 miles to the east of Groom Lake.
Although, as he says, the quality of the footage is nowhere close to the ones we have already talked about here in the past, it includes some interesting stuff.
Spending the night at Tikaboo
“I climbed Tikaboo around 3:30 PM, the weather was fine but as soon as the sun set the temperature began to drop and the wind started blowing. Guys, in a matter of two hours the temperature dropped by approximately 15 degrees Celsius,” says Michał in the description of his video filmed in the night between Oct. 11-12, 2023. “This is what always amazes me, the desert appears to be friendly and then it may totally surprise you in a flash. This time was no different. Just after sundown I managed to take photos and video of two fast movers that landed at Groom. ”
Throughout the night, the base remained mostly quiet, its runway lights and buildings illuminated but devoid of significant activity. At 5:35 AM, as he lay on the rocks, a low pulsating sound pierced the silence. The unmistakable rhythm of a UH-60 helicopter from Groom Lake grew louder, confirming his suspicion. The chopper approached low, circled above, hovered briefly, and then returned to the base.
“While lying on the rocks atop of the Peak I heard a low pulsating sound approaching from the base. It was a rhythmic tone with intervals of one-to-one second. I quickly recognized the sound: I was sure it was one of Groom’s UH-60 that I knew are commonly used when the base wants to see what you are doing with their NVGs.”
“The sound was getting louder and louder and I had the impression they were really close to me. My feeling turned out to be true and as I took a look to the left I noticed the base Chopper very low above me. It was moving slowly, low above the ground, making a slow pass-by circle above. Then it hovered for several seconds, looking at me, just to leave in the direction of Groom in a matter of seconds.”
“All this wouldn’t be so interesting if it weren’t for the fact that I had my scanner on all the time and I heard communications on some of the Groom mission frequencies. The base didn’t send their security helicopter out of the blue. Soon I heard that they were preparing to launch something pretty sensitive/*hush*hush* and needed to abort due to the fact I was up there. The female voice at Groom literally said: “ok, we are done for today…”.
Here’s an excerpt of the communications overheard (Coffee Tree is the R-4806W Airspace Controller based at Area 51, while Sabre 31 is the usual callsign of the base’s UH-60U Ghost Hawk):
05:45:07 Coffee Tree: “… when able”
05:47:33 Coffee Tree: “… confirmation of watchdog Tango; uh, that will be a decisions point for us this morning”
05:51:36 Mission Backup: “… Groundhog on Mission Backup when able”
05:51:51 Mission Backup: “Sabre 3-1 is airborne; he should be on station in about two minutes”
05:54:32 Mission Backup: “Radio check on backup”
05:54:37 Mission Backup: “… clear, how me?”
05:56:55 Coffee Tree: “Thanks for the words, I really appreciate the help”
05:57:28 Mission Backup: “Sabre 3-1 has called in and has confirmed Watchdog Tango; we are done today!”
05:57:57 Coffee Tree: “Yep, thank you”
06:16:45 Mission Prime: “Our primary mission has cancelled. Sabre 82 may be up and flying as well”
Watchdog Tango
The term “Watchdog Tango”, which combines the idea of a spotter (watchdog) and Tikaboo (Tango, the phonetic ‘T’), is the codeword used over radio comms for spotters at Tikaboo watching.
In this case, the Watchdog Tango condition led to the cancellation of a mission about to launch from Area 51, highlighting the secretive base’s remarkable detection capabilities, even in complete darkness and from 26 miles away. In other words, they are aware of observers on public land (the helicopter is most probably dispatched to confirm what other sensors located there may have collected) and will not conduct clandestine flight tests if there is any risk of disclosing sensitive information.
