S.T.U.D.S at Dreamland
Unveiling the Black Budget
The military's black budget has long been shrouded in secrecy, closely guarded by the clandestine hands of the United States. However, a surprising discovery emerged in the form of a 1986 National Journal exposé on the Black Budget, flagged and recorded by the CIA. This document, with budgetary numbers and certain project codewords intact, sheds light on the extent of spending on various projects and the level of secrecy surrounding certain budget items.
Special Technical Unit Detachment: An Enigma
Within this document lies a curious entity known as the Special Technical Unit Detachment, operating out of the enigmatic "Dreamland," more commonly recognized as Area 51. This unit's official purpose remains hidden, though it falls under the 'Operations and Maintenance' category in the budget.
The capitalization of the Special Technical Unit Detachment, abbreviated as S.T.U.D in this document, underscores its significance. Notably, a unit named S.T.U.D.S. is specifically mentioned in the Majestic Documents dump, suggesting a possible connection.
The unit is mentioned as being created in the late 1980s. Operating out of Area 51, it is tasked with the recovery and security of top-secret aircraft, specifically the "S" aircraft mentioned here as being a craft on loan from what is today called Air Force Materiel Command located at Wright-Patterson AFB. The "S" craft was supposedly reverse-engineered by German scientists from one craft that crashed in southwestern Missouri and another captured in Louisiana. There's an implication within the Majestic Document that these units also handled cover stories for the test operations or flights that went awry of these "S" aircraft.
The Official Record
To prove that the Special Tactical Unit Detachments are the same S.T.U.D.S. referenced in the Majestic Document, there is another connection to these S.T.U.D.S units in official documentation linking the name directly to the abbreviation, within the same time frame specified in the Majestic Document. This 'Department of Air Force Justification of Estimates for Fiscal Year 1987', hosted on the Library of Congress website, shows a line item listed with the exact name and abbreviation as in the Majestic Document. The budget for these units is shown as $138 million in 1985, which closely aligns with the $158.7 million mentioned previously in the black budget article for a 1987 increase. These documents clearly are referring to the same units.
It is additionally confirmed through this official Air Force budget document that the program these units attach to is classified. These units also typically have 15 aircraft assigned to it and performed 4,349 flight hours in 1985.
A Famous Crash
The following sentence within the black budget document mentions the famous crash of Lt. Gen. Robert M. Bond at Area 51, which ties into another fascinating point.
Robert M. Bond was killed in a high-speed ejection from what was purported to be a MiG-23BN. It is worth noting that, according to the Majestic Document, one of the biggest issues with the "S" aircraft is that test pilots kept being killed during high-altitude and high-performance test flights.
Following this lead...
I'm not trying to draw any conclusions, and truthfully, I'm not sure what to make of these points. However, it's well known that test operations of highly secretive craft employ cover stories for incidents or inadvertent exposure. I also find it fascinating that the budget for these S.T.U.D.S. is rather high compared to many of the other budget items for the "Tactical Intelligence and Special Activities" activity group. This point would seem to indicate that whatever these S.T.U.D.S. do is rather significant.
Moreover, the lack of information online about these units adds additional intrigue, and I would bet that this thread would yield some serious fruit if it is pursued as a line of inquiry to the USAF from reporters and researchers. This is a lead I intend to continue following.
Note:
The legitimacy of many of the Majestic Documents has been in question since they were dumped on the internet. However, I believe interesting points like this, which can be referenced to potential connections in legitimate documents, should prompt researchers to revisit some of these documents with an open mind. It seems possible that at least some of the documents are legitimate, and fakes could have been thrown in to spoil the entire batch.