A question: Are Copper Coast and the X-24C in any way connected?

[greenmartian2017]

I thought I would post this question, as there seems to be a lot of confusion in sources I have been reading about COPPER COAST, and whether this is connected to the X-24C program. Some have claimed that there is, and others make no mention of any linkage at all.

Here's a link that claims there is, and links it to Lockheed's L-301 project: https://www.dreamlandresort.com/black_projects/groom_projects.html. But as far as I can tell, this is the only one that explicitly claims this.

Are these two things connected (I mean directly)? Or there is no connection between them?

Please post your responses.

Thanks in advance.

 

[quellish]

COPPER COAST was the name assigned to Program Element 0207424F in the early 1990s. The program may have originated in during the 1980s. It was an Air Force Tactical Air Program, and continued at least into the early 2010s. In about 1993 the name for this program element in budget documents changed from COPPER COAST to Evaluation and Analysis Program and has been some variation of that since.

Curiously, in 2006 and 2007 it was to receive less than $10m, then in 2008 it was to jump to $650m! It is hard to say what this program may be.

In the 1980s there was a separate program, COPPER CANYON (DARPA 1982-1986), that was part of the DoD studies that lead to NASP. There is nothing I am aware of that associates COPPER COAST with COPPER CANYON or any specific aircraft, project, etc. There is no reason I am aware of to connect X-24C with COPPER COAST.

 

[In_A_Dream]

OP, there were various white world research projects in support of developing SSTO and TSTO platforms throughout the last half-century. Some of those efforts may have coalesced in secret if their intended purpose was sensitive to national security. And if that's the case, you'd be hard pressed to find a direct connection between those projects publicly.

Given that, you'd have to use your imagination and think about what COPPER COAST was trying to achieve and what the X-24 project was trying to achieve to get your answer.

 

[greenmartian2017]

Thanks Quellish. It may be I had mis-remembered, and the project I was meaning to allude to was COPPER CANYON.

 

[Q-nimbus]

COPPER COAST was the name assigned to Program Element 0207424F in the early 1990s. The program may have originated in during the 1980s. It was an Air Force Tactical Air Program, and continued at least into the early 2010s. In about 1993 the name for this program element in budget documents changed from COPPER COAST to Evaluation and Analysis Program and has been some variation of that since.

Curiously, in 2006 and 2007 it was to receive less than $10m, then in 2008 it was to jump to $650m! It is hard to say what this program may be.

In the 1980s there was a separate program, COPPER CANYON (DARPA 1982-1986), that was part of the DoD studies that lead to NASP. There is nothing I am aware of that associates COPPER COAST with COPPER CANYON or any specific aircraft, project, etc. There is no reason I am aware of to connect X-24C with COPPER COAST.

Great find! Do you perhaps have any educated guesses as to what COPPER COAST may be?

 

[quellish]

Great find! Do you perhaps have any educated guesses as to what COPPER COAST maybe?

COPPER COAST is an operational support RDTE program element. To give you an example of another operational support account, there is one for the F-15 (and for every other major operational aircraft). F-15 upgrades, new weapons, testing, etc. are all through that program element.

COPPER COAST is a classified program supporting an operational system for *30 years*, with varying levels of funding. It would take a great deal more research to even speculate as to what it may be.