An advisory posted Monday by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) — a sub-agency of the Department of Defense — has subsequently raised a number of questions. In a warning to mariners in the “eastern north Pacific,“ the NGA advisory coincidentally reported that areas off the coast of southern California would be in the ”naval air warfare center sea range,“ and susceptible to ”intermittent missile firing operations” this week.
The advisory noted that “vessels may be requested to alter course” in the area “due to firing operations” and that navigators should “maintain continuous guard while within the range.” The geographical coordinates encompassing the noted sea range correspond to the reported area in which Monday’s “mystery missile” was spotted.
Vessels traveling to and from California ports in the vicinity of the sea range were instructed to “transit via the Santa Barbara Channel and within nine miles offshore vicinity of Point Mugu or to cross the area southwest of San Nicolas Island between sunset and sunrise.
Monday’s NGA warning also appeared in Tuesday’s broadcast for mariners, noting that missile activity would proceed throughout the week. However, Wednesday’s advisory made no mention of continuing missile activity.
Eyewitness accounts Monday estimated the approximate location of the trajectory “as west of Los Angeles, north of Catalina Island, and approximately 35 miles out to sea.”
Feedback into The Blaze suggested the anomaly could have been an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from a U.S. submarine off the California coastline. Sources have since confirmed no such launch took place.
However, further investigations have revealed that the noted San Nicolas Island (SNI) — a nine-mile long strip of land about 60 miles south of Point Mugu — is actually home to a U.S. Navy weapons testing and training facility. According to the Navy, SNI is “critical to performing the Sea Range mission and provides a cornerstone for supporting a wide variety of test, evaluation, training and experimentation operations, including surface-to-air, surface-to-surface, air-to-air, air-to-surface, missile defense, fleet training and large-scale joint experimentation scenarios.”
The Navy has owned and operated various weapons tests on the island since 1933. The island is coincidentally located at the center of the NGA’s missile advisory range:
Article with maps;
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/pentagon-mystery-missile-was-probably-airplane/
