"18 modified aircraft flying O believe three missions per day for 200 plus days"
18 aircraft, each flying 3 missions per day? From a single base? So exactly how far would they travel on each mission? Assuming 747's...lets call it 550 MPH? Range of about maybe 6000 miles? No, lets call it 7000 at max weight.
So 3500 out...3500 back at 550....hmmm, thats an almost 13 hr trip.....so even with a crew change they can't even do 2 trips a day. That's completely disregarding refueling, reloading, safety checks, time on the ground, weather, etc, etc. And how could one base cover much more than a 7000mi radius? What about aircraft maintenance? No expert, but don't they have to go down for almost a week every few thousand hours? Or would they disregard that and take a chance of a catastrophic failure and crash?
Oh....and the one base....it would need hanger facilities, 10000 ft runways, fire crews, housing, medical facilities, infrastructure, etc. So no one, not ATC, not the FAA, locals, fuel delivery trucks, mailmen....would ever wonder about these flights and the facility?
See all these could be's and may be's just don't add up to a possible...in my opinion. This is not the 1940s when people still crapped in an outhouse and many had no running water or electricity.