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Old 18th Apr 2018, 10:45
  #9 (permalink)  
ORAC
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
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Lakenheath didn’t hold a QRA so would have had no live armed aircraft on alert; if any jets were fitted with Mx they would have been inert training rounds.

The possibility that anyone would have been able to go far enough up the command chain (it was after midnight Washington time) to get permission to live arm aircraft, get the Mx out of the armoury onto the aircraft and brief a couple of pilots and then launch them inside an hour is sheer fantasy. I am willing to accept they were able to scramble the only two Ircraft they already had pre-flighted for other missions (another C-130 and an F-100*) to try and find and track the C-130 with ATCC assistance, but no more than that.

*That time in the morning, a Wx check aircraft?
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