DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
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figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
Well, that’s not really the conundrum of the century. It’s not difficult to think why military planes might not always want to be found easily.
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
It depends on what the aims of the mission are
If you are doing something to send a message then they leave it switched on so people can track them
For example - a few days ago a B52 flew from RAF Fairford across Denmark and through the Baltic and did a few circles around an island just East of Sweden
I think it is "quite likely" that Russia was watching it all the way - they would have been aware as soon as it passed a certain point anyway but having its tracking switched on meant that they were telling everyone else
including people inside Russia
AT other times I see Tanker type aircraft orbiting for hours over East Rumania or Bulgaria - or Poland etc. Now that is all the military stuff I can see - but you don;t have tankers flying circles for hours unless there are other planes around
e.g. fighters or spy planes that are there to protect "something else"
When the Global Hawk if flying around the Black Sea and Putin has been threatening them - then a tanker sometimes appears just inside the coastal area - which would be very useful to any fighters that were airborne to protect the Spy plane if Russia decided to sent something up to threaten it
I have also noticed that some U2s have been coming in and out of Fairford for some time - they seldom broadcast anything - but if they do then it is sending a message
Conrad_K
unindicted co-conspirator
- Location
- Little Rock, Arkansas
744 B-52s were built. 72 are currently in service. Most of the other 90% are at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona. D-M is an operational USAF base, but it's best known as "the boneyard"; a cross between a used airplane storage lot and a junkyard.
The 72 flying B-52s are kept in the air by cannibalizing the planes at the Boneyard, and by great heaping piles of money.
The B-52's combat range (to target and return) is 8,800 miles, more than enough to fly around the world. Plus they can be refueled in the air. That was in support of America's rather grandiose geopolitical ambitions in the 1950s. At that time, America didn't have a lot of foreign bases they could stage bomber fleets from.
Britain's strategic needs were far simpler. The Commonwealth was huge, and it was relatively easy to position bombers within a few hundred to a couple thousand miles of any likely target. (handwaving away much political friction between the Commonwealth members, of course) And Britain's tradition of precision bombing instead of "aluminium overcast" made it reasonable to build smaller bombers to accurately deliver conventional or nuclear payloads instead of the American "drop enough bombs and we're sure to hit the target eventually" system.
Had the V-bombers - specifically the Vulcans - had to face off against the USSR, it's likely they would have done better than the B-52. In 1961 the US conducted "Operation Sky Shield II", simulating a Soviet attack against the United States. The RAF was invited to play. Eight RAF Avro Vulcans flew as "aggressor" high-altitude bombers.
Everything was neat and tidy... until they analyzed the results. 100% of the "aggressor" planes flown by American pilots were detected by the vast SAGE radar system. (if you've seen the movie "Doctor Strangelove", the underground bunker is a reasonable facsimile of a SAGE control center)
Some of the Vulcans were spotted, but NORAD failed to intercept any of them. Apparently the RAF wasn't briefed that Sky Shield II was an elaborately staged propaganda show and treated it as a serious exercise. Or if they were, that didn't trickle down to the flight crews.
Oops.
The B-52s are big, angular, and stand out on radar like a parachute flare. The Vulcan, by accident of design, turned out to have a remarkably small radar return; maybe not "stealth" by modern standards, but enough to give them a huge advantage when making an attack. NORAD immediately slapped a "secret" classification on news of the RAF's participation and threatened to fine or jail anyone who talked about it.
Eh. I guess that's enough airplane for now.
gbb
Squire
- Location
- Peterborough
No, just idle thoughts. We see them (and hear them) frequently , usually mock dogfights, high up. It sounded no different today, yet not visible. Just idle thoughts, I know we will never know the exact reason It doesn't stop you. ( me ) wondering....
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
gbb
Squire
- Location
- Peterborough
F15 this evening I can hear him in the distance but far too far away to see.
Unusual, ive rarely seen F15s
Unusual, ive rarely seen F15s
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
No argument there. My comment was purely about situations where the bad guys are posing a genuine threat, then all military types have the facility to switch off their transponders.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
View: https://youtu.be/-Wx6npt421c?si=i9IEnZKj5PGMBdGO
Full story here, Dr Felton does some excellent military history videos
DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
Interesting - that's one of the former Blackbird support fleet, modified to tanker the special heat-resistant fuel that the SR-71 used.
Joey Shabadoo
My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
If it was heat resistant, how did they burn it?
Punkawallah
Über Member
Heat -resistant-, not heat -proof-. :-)
figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
