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I heard a jet go over my house this morning but checked Flightradar24 and it said it was a Van RV8A doing 450knts despite having a propeller max cruising speed of 180. Not sure if it was an error or deliberate misdirection?
Rivet joint running up and down tje Moldova border now, 1745z. Tight racetrack pattern. Keeping an eye on Odessa and the ruski amphibious assault ships.
Looks like one of the B52s is just back into Fairford now (18:19pm). I assume the other one's already on the ground, or switched off the beacon in the meantime
Just had 2 x B52s pass overhead in low formation (Chippenham, by M4 j17), probably @ 6pm. Haven't seen anything like that for a while, since RAF Lyneham closed up shop
@luv2ride - I saw them just before you did, they flew directly over where I work in Westbury. I was taking a time-out for a few minutes in our Arrivals hut, and a delivery transporter driver was bringing his cars up ready for inspection tomorrow, and I saw him stop and turn around, looking at something then walk off back to his transporter. I went outside to see what had got his attention, heard jet engines and spotted them heading north, towards Chippenham and Fairford.
I checked out ADS-B, and only one was showing, as usual…
I expanded the view to see where they’d been, and it seems they’d been on a little jaunt over to Romania. As one does…
Just had a thought - due to my shift pattern, after tomorrow, I’ve got five days off, then back at work for four days, then off again for another five. Fairford isn’t really all that far away, and a quick look at ADS-B, and some forward planning, it might be feasible to be there to see them land…
Got a pair of F15s from Lakenheath circling over us (Gower)
Couple of blackhawks:
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae5d3e
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae5ac7
Rivet, Sentry, a joint stars and an RC135 having a get together:
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae1491
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=4d03d0
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae01d1
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=43c39c
Artemis doing hotlaps on the southern border:
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a60693
E3 Sentry coming in to Birmingham airport, be good to see that
Be too far away for me to see it flying over Coventry
“ E3 Sentry coming in to Birmingham airport, be good to see that”
Saw it flying overhead. Annoyingly if I was in the office today I probably would have seen as I cycle past the end of the runway to get home
Bugger I was by the airport all day yesterday 🤣
Euro fighters are out today it's busy for sure.
Was a kc135 stratotanker west of Warsaw last night. Doing the usual racetrack with long legs for hours. Didn't spot any hook ups and nothing military got close, apart from a Blavkhawk and they 30,000 feet of vertical separation.
Lots of traffic in and out of Rzeszow. At the moment.
There was an Italian Global Hawk over Greece earlier today, and a Lakenheath F-15 was making scribbles at 16,000 feet over Westbury and a chunk of Salisbury Plain earlier today as well.
I’ve just spotted something drone-like flying around very slowly just offshore from RAF Akrotiri as well. No identifier for it, though.
@luv2ride - I don’t suppose you’re the owner of a blue On-One Il Pompino s/s, by any chance?
I think I've seen the Royal Artillery tweeting about deploying Watchkeeper to Akrotiri so I expect that's what you're seeing. They were flying it above Keevil during the summer, you could probably hear it in Westbury!
Interesting load of US jets flying around (over the North Sea in particular). No other identification of what I’m looking at
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae26d2
Showing up as F16s on Flightradar23:
Look to be F15s F16s and a couple of Eurofighters too now.
Showing up as F16s on Flightradar23:
Didnt think they had F-16s in the UK. Mostly F-15E and a slowly increasing number of F-35s.
Several Hawks up from Anglesea too. Maybe it's just a nice day for exercises.
Just had 2 B52's trundle through my airspace, getting in the way.
dissonance
Full Member
Didnt think they had F-16s in the UK. Mostly F-15E and a slowly increasing number of F-35s.
Definitely F-16s, a couple more going out for a play now. If the tracks earlier were anything to go by it looked like practice for getting up close and personal with other jets.
Also, they really are the prettiest jets around
Apache's are up above suffolk:
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=43c934
Rivet has been covering some ground:
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae01d1
Seems a lot of the stuff earlier in the week has had their trackers turned off, but the tankers are still flying
@awh - not familiar with Watchkeeper, I’ll do a search for it. Keevil isn’t far away, but it’s usually only big transports like A-400 and C-130’s that come over low and fast on an approach to do practice runs. I often hear things flying around, but if it’s cloudy it’s difficult to tell what it is, and often there’s no transponder to identify the plane. It’s quite possible that if Watchkeeper was being flown out of Keevil, it may have been going east of where I am in Westbury to test over the ranges with ground forces.
@luv2ride – I don’t suppose you’re the owner of a blue On-One Il Pompino s/s, by any chance?
@CountZero, nope sir, not me. Single speed Spesh Singlecross here...all tye other bikes are geared, inc a modded Arkose gravel bike that was once originally (and may soon return to being) S/S
@CountZero The fast jets with out transponders on are probably Typhoons from Coningsby. They seem to fly down to the exercise area then switch off. This week though there's been F-15Es with transponders on.
Single B52 over Chippenham 11.45 today
B-52 just gone over Chippenham, fairly low, too. Been for a little jaunt down to Southern Europe, actually Clairmonde du Feronde, in the Park Volcans, had a mountain bike holiday around there back in the 90’s, lovely countryside.
3 x Hercy birds just flew out of Ramstein ab. Plus the usual night sortie for the kc135 stratotanker out to its position between Warsaw and the Ukrainian border.
I refuse to believe they fly out there for no reason for hours every night. Exactly what they are refuelling who knows
I refuse to believe they fly out there for no reason for hours every night. Exactly what they are refuelling who knows
Refueling global hawks and other reconnaissance equipment .
B52's are up again...
Refueling global hawks and other reconnaissance equipment .
Are global hawks capable of aerial refuelling? Given the trickiness of the exercise trying it with a UAV seems dangerous.
There are fighters out there. The UK typhoons sometimes appear flying out with the tanker but they then go dark once over Poland.
Watched one of the buffs fly back at 10000ft last week, it was about 20 miles away so had the binos on it. Without a doubt the dirtiest jets around (and not in a good way 😏), leaving a filthy smudge across the sky. It's insane that the fighter cohort is so cutting edge, although the F15s are older than their pilots, but the heavy bombers saw action over Vietnam in the 60s. The two up today date from '60 & '61.
I've read somewhere recently that the upgrades they have in mind hope to get them through another 50 years, that'll be over 100 years in service. Assuming a MIG29 doesn't take them down in the coming months...
I’ve read somewhere recently that the upgrades they have in mind hope to get them through another 50 years
The engine replacement project is going ahead (8 new engines each, reducing the number was incredibly complicated) so they’ll absolutely be going for a long, long time
There was a NASA program a few years back trying to successfully achieve this, it didn't happen and reports since are vague and ambiguous.
As it has a range of 9000+ NM it's probably not that much of a concern if their homeplate is in the region.
Are global hawks capable of aerial refuelling? Given the trickiness of the exercise trying it with a UAV seems dangerous.
Just had a look around Europe to see what military stuff is up and about, there’s a fair few US C-17’s about, but this one caught my eye, as it was flying a racetrack course - Luxembourg E-3 Sentry, over Poland right on the borders of Belarus and Ukraine…
@creakingdoor - this piece will give you more background info about the Buffs, and ongoing upgrades to them the Rolls-Royce engines that are being fitted are already in use on a number of small military jets, and lots of civilian aircraft. They will improve performance and range, and previous work installing rotary weapons delivery systems inside the bomb bays had allowed mixed weapons loads, and allowed the removal of underwing pylons, cleaning up the airframe and again improving aerodynamics and fuel efficiency and range. Seeing them flying after a century of service isn’t an exaggeration! They first entered service in 1955, first flight was April 1952, 69 years ago,
Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that the B-1B Lancer, and B-2 Spirit will have both been retired from service and replaced with the B-21 Raider, (the first of which should be undergoing its first test flight very soon), while the Buff’s are still in service.
Regarding the B-21, nobody’s quite sure what it looks like, but educated guesses think it’ll be like this:
This is actually closer to what the B-2 Spirit should have been, before Air Force Top Brass stuck their oar in and demanded changes to be made, slowing development and increasing costs - not much new there, then…
I would not be at all surprised if the US intend to re assign the B52 as drone delivery system.
Use the heavy, slow, huge bomber to drop maybe hundreds of drones near to where they are needed but out of SAM range.
Then either control them from another airframe or satellite. If weapons weight payloads are necessary then range will diminish. So you could use many cheap, disposable one way kamikaze drones instead of a few million dollar ones.
Thebomb bay is probably big enough to allow for a launch and replen of a single larger uav too. Might need a tiny jet motor and folding wing but in the world of weaponry with mind blowing budgets these things are possible
A couple of long missions from Akrotiri tonight on Flightradar24
https://twitter.com/exasperatedtory/status/1502372784818827270?s=21
Keep your eyes open for a C-5 Galaxy that’s heading in our direction, looks like from somewhere in Greece - no clear indication as to the take-off point. It’s over the Czech Republic at the moment, I’d guess it’s heading home, but it may land in the U.K.
@singletrackmind - that’s entirely possible, the military/aviation sites I see on Flipboard have talked about drone swarms for some time, along with ‘loyal wingman’ systems, where a single fighter or bomber controls a number of semi-autonomous armed drones. It’s even being mentioned about a pilotless version of the B-21, for particularly hazardous missions, where sacrificing a pilotless version would be seen as acceptable, leaving the manned version to act as stand-off observer/controller.
Might need a tiny jet motor and folding wing but in the world of weaponry with mind blowing budgets these things are possible
Look up rapid dragon. They are experimenting with dropping cruise missiles out of cargo planes.