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Which is why we had to identify the type before manoeuvring through their centreline.
From distant memory of learned explanations in Aviation Week, the 707 TACAMO had two trailing wires - 19000 and 29000 ft.
The idea was that the aircraft flew in tight circles at high level while one wire excited the other and the longer one had much of its length hanging vertical - something to do with getting the correct polar diagram for VLF comms with deep submerged subs.
During early testing, the 160 KIAS tight circles at high level caused the wire to wrap itself round the back end of the 707 which caused a bit of alarm.
But the trailing wires probably had a better kill range than the BEAR tail gunner, if you needed to get within range of either. Unless he now has access to SDAAM.
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