Area 69 San Andreas: Military Bases and the Black Project Jetpack

Area 69 in San Andreas is the top-secret desert military base in Bone County that hides the Black Project jetpack, and it is only one of three restricted military zones scattered across the state. Each base is a guaranteed five-star wanted level the moment you cross the fence, but each one also stores hardware you cannot easily get anywhere else: the jetpack, the Hydra jump-jet, and the Rhino tank. Here is where every San Andreas military base sits, how the story opens them up, and what you can steal once you are inside.

Where Area 69 Sits in Bone County

Area 69 (signposted in-game as the "Restricted Area" and a "No Fly Zone") is a classified government research facility in the heart of the Bone County desert. It is a direct parody of the real-world Area 51, complete with alien and UFO rumors that ripple through the game's myth-hunting community. You will find it:

• South of the Verdant Meadows airstrip
• North of Green Palms
• West of Las Venturas
• East of El Castillo del Diablo

Behind the perimeter fence sit military depots, warehouses, and research labs, with a vehicle depot on the eastern end of the grounds. The most important section is underground: a complex of storage rooms, a control chamber, and the laboratories where the Black Project is kept.

The Black Project Mission and the Jetpack

The Black Project mission is how the jetpack enters the story. The Truth hands you the job at the Verdant Meadows airfield, and it can only be started at night (roughly 20:00 to 06:00). CJ has to infiltrate Area 69 and reach the underground labs before sunrise at 05:30.

The opening is a stealth sequence. Searchlights sweep the grounds, and the rules are strict:

• Do not linger inside a searchlight beam for too long.
• Do not shoot out more than two searchlights, or you trigger the alarm.

Use the control tower to open the blast doors and slip underground. Once the alarm goes off, you fight through soldiers and scientists to reach the launch bay. A scientist hands over a keycard that unlocks the bay door, and the Black Project (the jetpack) is waiting at the bottom of the shaft. Climb in, fly straight up out of the open launch bay, and deliver it to The Truth's van out in the canyons near Arco del Oeste. There is no cash reward, but you keep access to the jetpack for the rest of the game. The previous mission is Stowaway, and the next is Green Goo.

Easter Basin Naval Station in San Fierro

The second restricted zone is the Easter Basin Naval Station, a military harbor in San Fierro. It is built around a large submarine pen, several coastal docking points, and a multipurpose amphibious assault ship designated LHD-069. Like Area 69, simply entering on foot, in a vehicle, or flying low over the docks earns an instant five-star wanted level.

The naval station is the stage for Vertical Bird, given by government agent Mike Toreno from Madd Dogg's Crib in Los Santos. CJ sneaks aboard LHD-069 to steal a Hydra, then uses it to destroy spy ships (Tropics) out in Tierra Robada before landing the jet at Verdant Meadows. This is the only storyline mission that touches all three major regions of San Andreas. During Vertical Bird itself, the naval base does not throw a wanted level at you, but the moment the mission is over, it reverts to a five-star restricted zone. If you want a deeper breakdown of grabbing all three vehicles, see our guide on the San Andreas military hardware.

The Las Venturas Airport No-Fly Zone

The third military-grade restricted area covers Las Venturas Airport. Like the desert base, it is a no-fly zone, and crossing the fence or flying too low spikes you to five stars with SAM sites tracking the sky. There is a well-known trick here: once you have unlocked street races, head to the red race marker, climb over the adjacent fence, and a Hydra sits inside the airport grounds. It vanishes when you save or reload, so it is a temporary grab rather than a permanent spawn. For a clean look at the layout, browse the San Andreas screenshots.

What You Can Steal: Hydra, Rhino, and Jetpack

Once the story unlocks these bases, they become a buffet of military toys. Here is what spawns and where:

• Jetpack: earned in Black Project. After you finish it, a jetpack reliably spawns at the Verdant Meadows airfield, so you always have a way to grab another.
• Hydra: after completing Vertical Bird, a Hydra permanently spawns in the hangar at Verdant Meadows. Two Hydras also appear at Area 69 once that mission is done, but pulling them out of the base means eating the five-star response.
• Rhino tank: two Rhinos park inside Area 69 hangars after Black Project. The base depot also holds a Patriot, a Barracks, and a Cargobob.

If you would rather skip the infiltration entirely, the cheat for the jetpack is ROCKETMAN and the cheat for the Hydra is JUMPJET. Our full San Andreas cheats list collects every working code for PC and console.

Surviving the Five-Star Restricted Zone Response

Every one of these military zones works the same way: there is no easing into them. The instant you breach the perimeter (on foot, in a car, or flying low), the game slaps a five-star wanted level on you regardless of whether you fired a shot. That brings:

• SAM sites that lock onto and shoot down anything in the airspace above the base.
• Hydras scrambled to hunt you in the sky.
• Heavy ground patrols of soldiers and military vehicles.

The smart play is to let the story do the heavy lifting. Black Project clears the path to the jetpack, and Vertical Bird parks a Hydra at your own airstrip, so you rarely need to risk Area 69 or Easter Basin again once you own Verdant Meadows. Treat the bases as hostile until then.

Sources

• Area 69 (GTA Wiki). Location, vehicle spawns, restricted-zone response, and real-life basis.
• Black Project (GTA Base). Mission walkthrough, searchlight rules, keycard, and jetpack reward.
• Easter Basin Naval Station (GTA Wiki). Naval base layout, LHD-069, and Vertical Bird.
• Vertical Bird (WikiGTA). Hydra theft and cross-region mission route.
• Where to get secret vehicles like the Rhino, Hydra and Hunter (Millenium). Spawn locations and cheat codes.