Adams Air Force Base

Adams Air Force Base is a heavily-fortified Enclave installation outside the Capital Wasteland. It is only available in the Fallout 3 add-on Broken Steel.

Background
Located 15 km southeast of Washington, D.C., Adams Air Force Base was one of the largest military bases in the vicinity of the D.C. metropolitan area. Connected via an underground line to the Capitol and the White House, it provided transportation for the highest offices of the nation. The heavily fortified base was abandoned after the Great War, its reinforced buildings and robotic defenses weathering the centuries admirably. The contents of the base were much less lucky, as fighter jets and ordnance gradually succumbed to the environment.

It wasn't until the late 23rd century that the Enclave claimed the base, using what remained to establish a base of operations around their mobile base crawler, a former space shuttle mobile platform. The crawler remained the primary facility at the base, as two centuries of neglect and abandonment have reduced much of its buildings to unusable derelicts. The Enclave started several research projects at the base, including the development of a Duraframe Eyebot and the Hellfire power armor.

The base fell circa 2278 during a two-pronged assault on Adams Air Force Base carried out by the Lyons' Brotherhood of Steel in conjunction with their newest Knight, the Lone Wanderer. While Lyons' forces launched diversionary attacks across the perimeter, the Wanderer infiltrated the base through the abandoned Presidential Metro and fought their way to the Crawler, eventually launching an orbital nuclear strike on it using the orbital nuclear platform. Despite the destruction, the AFB was in usable shape and the Brotherhood restored it over the years. It was here that the Prydwen was painstakingly assembled and launched.

Layout
The base can only be accessed through the Presidential Metro, and is not accessible before you have reached the appropriate point in the quest line. The base is a separate area outside of the Capital Wasteland.

Adams storage facility
The Adams storage facility is a warehouse that the Enclave uses to store surplus supplies. It's in the southeastern portion of the base.

Air control tower
The air control tower is in the far north-central area of the base. It's responsible for aiding Vertibird pilots with tasks like when they can take off, when they can land and where they should take off and land.

Mobile base crawler
The mobile base crawler is the main attraction of the base, located in the northeast part. It holds many of the Enclave's active troops as well as many scientist who conduct experiments and research on wasteland creatures.

Barracks
The barracks is a fenced-in area with evenly spaced residences for soldiers. The gates to the compound are shut, leaving visitors able to only look at them from a distance. The only accessible part of this section of the base is a baseball court, near the entryway into the hangars.

Notable loot

 * There is a mini nuke, a first aid box, and some microfusion cells located in a nook above an awning that is reachable from the roof with a walkway covered in steel colored pipes. During the quest Who Dares Wins, this roof will overlook a large number of Vertibirds. When coming from the Presidential Metro, keep moving right, and up some stairs. They are on a green tin awning at the far side of this roof. From the metal housing (with the computer and first aid boxes), look to your right, towards the Vertibirds. The mini nuke and microfusion cells might not appear after completing the quest. If the military truck below the tin awning is destroyed, the resulting explosion may also knock the mini nuke and microfusion cells to the ground below.
 * 400x flamer fuel - There is a holotape regarding Flamer fuel that can be found on an Enclave scientist in the southeast research hangar. The message says that the fuel is located behind the small building due west of the Air Control Tower, beneath a pile of tires and barrels. It's behind the building, near the northwestern most corner of the area, in a very hard locked crate. Fortunately, the scientist with the holotape also carries the key to the stash. The barrels are on top of the crate, and you may have to pull one or two of them off. There is also a second gumdrops in the very far launch platform base on the first level of the mobile base crawler this is behind a small cleft protected by a force field. On the third shelf down.
 * There is a mini nuke on the double-stacked large crates in Hangar 2B (the one with the covered catwalk patrolled by the sentry bot). It is highly recommended to clear out all Enclave personnel in and around the hangar and catwalk before retrieving it. Then hop onto the roof while walking up the south end of the covered catwalk, enter through the northwest hole in the roof and make a running jump (while standing) from the top of the cage to the stacked crates.
 * Two mini nukes in a corridor of the aircraft hangar with three derelict jet planes inside. One is hidden under a desk; the other is hidden behind a filing cabinet.
 * Lots of medical supplies including stimpaks and blood packs.
 * Enclave soldier log- located on a small platform behind a large machine, in the alley directly west of the rooftop where the Sector 2 Artillery Note is located. When in the alley and looking northward, turn left (west) and enter the opening between the walls. Following the alley, then climbing the stairs, there is a large machine. A dead Enclave soldier, a Ripper, 2 Psycho, a couple first aid boxes are all behind the machine, with the holotape on the Enclave soldier's body.
 * Lots of weapons in the Mobile Base Crawler's armory, including an alien blaster (and ammunition), a precision Gatling laser, a heavy incinerator (and ammunition), and a combat shotgun, among a few others.

After the end of "Who Dares, Wins"

 * Two Tesla cannons and around 70 (roughly 100-115 with Scrounger) electron charge packs each will appear in four different resupply crates, located on the back of a truck in front of the gates to the inaccessible area, in front of the fortification by hangar 4A, on the west side of the green crates outside the south end of hangar 2B, and southeast of the Air Control Tower, surrounded by a semi-circle of sand bags.

Behind the scenes

 * This location is based on the real-life Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility formerly known as Andrews Air Force Base, and indeed, originally was to be named as such. Air Force One is situated at JBANAF.

Bugs

 * Sometimes wrecked Vertibird pieces hang in mid-air then drop out of the sky when approached.
 * In the alley that leads to the dead Enclave soldier with the Enclave soldier log #1, it is possible to become stuck behind the stairs, requiring either a reload of an earlier save or the use of console commands.
 * Sometimes after saving and exiting outside of the Mobile Base Crawler, upon reloading, The Enclave and BoS soldiers previously killed will come back to life wearing nothing. Killing and searching these soldiers will get you more armor and weapons.
 * If the player enters Adams Storage Facility for the first time AFTER completing the quest "Who Dares Wins" and exits, this will trigger several Enclave units to spawn, almost always resulting in the game crashing soon after.
 * After retrieving your orders from the supply crate, and heading North-East to find the access terminal that lowers the ramp for the next part of the quest, it is possible to drop through a building, and land 'inside' said building. All textures will flicker as you walk, and you will be 'outside the map'. To do this, head North-East as intended, and take the walkway that flies over a building (the building it flies over has many pipes and generators etc. on the roof), and that hugs the wall of another building. Jump off the walkway on the side that hugs the wall, where the wall indents slightly. You should fall through. Once inside the building, however, you will become trapped, and will have to load from a previous save.
 * During the initial approach through the hangars, it is possible to skip going through the last few and quickly getting to the Brotherhood of Steel members. This can be done by going into one of the side hangars with many Enclave scientists within, jumping on a staircase railing, then jumping to a metal overhang, then through a hole in the hangar out onto the airstrip. Caution is advised though, as the player can shoot at and be shot at by the Enclave from their small bunkers on the landing strip.
 * The deathclaw cages can be lock-picked (hard), then relocked using the attached deathclaw pen door terminal (needs to be hacked) multiple times, giving a lot of XP. (NOTE: Breaking the lock will also disable the terminal option to open the door)

Appearances
Adams Air Force Base appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Broken Steel. It is also mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4.