NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada—A 20-minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip is a repository for a few of the most coveted secrets and techniques of the Cold War, gathered over the years from forgotten battles, arms sellers and overseas governments hungry for onerous money.
The Threat Training Facility on Nellis Air Force Base homes the assortment of Soviet weapons, many mendacity idle in the desert warmth. It affords guests a close-up look at the MiG-29 jet fighter, as soon as one among the Soviet Union’s most feared plane due to its air-to-air fight capabilities. Visitors also can crawl into an SA-13, a cell Soviet surface-to-air missile system that menaced Western plane in the first Gulf War. And then there’s the Mi-24 Hind, an assault helicopter the Soviets used extensively in their conflict in Afghanistan, the place it turned a goal of CIA-supplied Stinger missiles.
