Originally Posted by
Phil_R
Hi folks
When two Typhoons intercepted a Latvian cargo aircraft in 2014, the Typhoon pilot began a radio transmission with "one six zero five from lima nine tango four seven..."
How does the cargo plane they're intercepting know he's 1605? From what I can find online, it was an Antonov with the registration code YL-RAA.
Also, how does the cargo plane know that L9T47 is the Typhoon? That doesn't sound like a UK military callsign.
It's nothing but idle curiosity, but where do these codes come from?
P
Lima Nine Tango Four Seven (flying with 46 or 48 as the other half of the pair I presume) sounds precisely like a UK operational military callsign. These are issued according to centralized procedures and are based on the unit rather than the squadron - in my experience one number and 2 letters with the digit first or second. So Nine Lima Tango or Lima Nine Tango would be OK, but not Lima Tango Nine. In effect, the trigraph is issued at random ... the station/squadron/unit has no say ... as far as I know, they do not repeat regularly (though I guess statistics will suggest that there are only 26 x 26 x 10 x 2 possible combinations), .
Can't speak for the 1605, it could be part of the callsign (commercial and military aircraft don't often use their tail letters/registrations as their callsigns though it is common in the General Aviation world) - have a look at any ADSB feed for plenty of examples. As MPN11 says and Pontious Navigator agrees, I would expect the call (especially the initial call) to be as precise as practically possible and the form of words is very formulaic. So "Aircraft Squawking 1605" or "Ukraine Air Force 1605" or the whole callsign.
Toppam. .