Scaremongering..

[lynx]

From: the Peacewatchers at USAF’s Fairford and Welford bases in the UK

Since Saturday, people in the Highlands of Scotland have been witnessing large movements of US warplanes overhead.

If this is from the 'Peacewatchers' at Fairford and Welford bases, how is it they haven't detected any extra planes landing at Fairford or Welford? Why are they are having to monitor things in the "Highlands of Scotland". And of course these planes just happen to be flying low so that they can be identified, rather than at there normal height.

I live near one of the main UK route markers (I forget the proper name), and when it is clear it is not unusual to see about a dozen planes flying north at the same time. While it is sometimes possible to work out the difference between large and small aricraft, there is no way to tell if they are commercial or military planes. Many of these aircraft would continue on over the west of Scotland, so such a sight would not be unusual there either. I believe inbound aircraft use a lane further east (directly over the Highlands) so similar numbers would be expected there. Trying to pick out an extra aircraft every 15 mins would be almost impossible.

The article certainly sounds like uncorroborated scaremongering, and it does not even fit together logically.

[El_Jefe]

Originally posted by muchspl2@7 November 2003 - 03:08
wrong, I live next to the worlds largest AF base, and they have to use trunked communications, its not as simple as a scanner, you will typically only pick up non-trunked conversions, mp's and mostly non mission specific, situational awareness is top priority and they can't just ease drop that easy, maybe in the 40's and 50's but not at all now

There's a whole segment of radio hobbyists that listen to military air comms(search google).

As said before, many military frequencies used in the HF, VHF and UHF range can be picked up with a scanner. Mainly voice traffic with the tower and tactical controllers are those that are intercepted with regards to tactical air traffic. While that might not be the wealth of information that's available on the data signals transmitted to a military aircraft's computer, with enough practice and basic understanding of teminology, one could determine things like take off and landing and routine training and operations (i.e. speed runs, altitude runs, intercept, para-drop, ground attack, search and rescue, refueling, etc.)

But as to the original topic, there are other reasons that could account for the movement of that many aircraft. Reserve and Guard wings deploying for in theater training, rotation of units in the Gulf, deployment for an exercise, it could just be an exercise at those particular bases(ops tempo has increased dramatically at many bases due to the events of the past few years and restructuring of the military), ect.

[k-liteuserintheworld]

ok just to add to this, this news is keeping very quiet in all news bulitins but if you go look at official news bulitins then you will see that america has started using air strikes on certain parts of iraq again

[*´¯`·.¸¸.»Çô©ö»]

Originally posted by k-liteuserintheworld@10 November 2003 - 09:23
ok just to add to this, this news is keeping very quiet in all news bulitins but if you go look at official news bulitins then you will see that america has started using air strikes on certain parts of iraq again

Well why wasnt i informed?
Am i being behind a propaganda media smokescreen?