Mil Jet Callsigns

[Schmoostyler]

Was comming back to home this afternoon during quite a big arrival sequence for a MIL exercise and was listening to all the fast jet callsigns on their first contact with tower.

After listening to all the benign foreign guys tags, I mentioned to my front seat passenger that in the past I'd heard the RAAF give themselves somewhat creative names like 'Hipshot'

No sooner had I said that then a bunch of Aussie F-18s calls up with 'Bareback' followed a few minutes later by some F-111s called 'Avocado Yoghurt'! Amusing by it's self, and not often you get a two worded call sign but it took me a while to put my finger on it's origins.

Must be referring to a symptom one of the lads bought back from Malaysia last time they were there!

[Capn Bloggs]

Arr, Maple Hipshot. Now that brings back memories...

[tinpis]

Mindil Beach markets? :yuk:

[Arm out the window]

Chosen at 'random' by intel - not so random perhaps considering the good ones that come out sometimes, eg. 'Bobby Socks' or 'Abortion' - I kid you not!

[aviation_enthus]

Some of the ones out of Tindal...

Sumo - US C-130
Soprano - US C-130
Top Hat - US C-130
Tea Pot - RAAF 707
Piano(1-6) - F-5 Malaysian? Singaporian?

Some of the usual Tindal 75 SQ callsigns (F/A-18's)
Classic
Magpie


But who can forget 'Death 22' !! the Americans always seem to think of the good ones:hmm:

[Moniker]

Sumo seems to get a run very millex. ;)

Tora (Tora and Tora) - kid you not - the first flight of B1's (seems like a lifetime ago - sigh) inbound to DRW.

Uranus (was a yanky tanker) all was well until I had to call the ruddy thing! :\

BUT, my personal favorite was .. wait for it .. "Love Truncheon" god bless the yanks and their sense of humor :O

[gav_20022002]

Saw 2 3SQN hornets take off from Darwin last Monday with the call sign Bondage.......Cant say i had ever heard that one before
This link might help with the RAAF call signs:

http://www.scanaustralia.bigpondhosting.com/military/RAAF/RAAF1.html

[scran]

As Arm Out The Window said - often in Exercises they are chosen at Random. The callsigns in the link above are the "normal" unit/squadron callsigns.


I've done exercises in Shoalwater Bay where, as a ground based unit, we had different callsigns on two different nets........

[ga_trojan]

I remember a few years ago when the theme was vegetables. Sounded ridiculous on the radio, "track to join downwind you're following Carrot a formation of F18s..."

From memory there was Potatoe, Carrot, Cabbage and leek plus all the usual suspects. (Magpie, sumo etc)

[Desert Flower]

Arr, Maple Hipshot. Now that brings back memories...

There was Maple Hipshot, Hawkeye, Homburg, Hoodo, Hornet, Hunter & Hydrant. All FA 18 Hornets.

DF.

[scran]

DF - I remember Maple Hunter, Hipshot, Hoodoo, Hydrant and Hawkeye when they were the 2OCU MIRAGE callsigns..........

And the Machhi's operated by 2OCU were Stingray Tiger, Trojan, Talon etc :ok:

[Arm out the window]

Ah yeah, but what about good old Whiptail Stinger, eh. Those were the days...:ok:

[kingoftheslipstream]

all kinds of fun can be had with mil callsigns... "hotel motels" and one of the more juvenile favourites at one of our training bases was "Dragon Skins" and when check-in took place for a four ship, we'd reverse the order and say:
One skin
Two skin
Three skin
Four skin...

... it seemed funny at the time... :ouch:

Some others I remember were 'Trucker' and 'Playboy'...

[Howard Hughes]

I always thought Hydrant was tanker...:eek:

[unscathed]

'nuther mixed C-130E/H form - Trojan Horse. And Viper Voodoo seemed way too pretentious for Form 1.

[Tagneah]

Might get in trouble for this but here goes:

A friend who flys for a large airline takes great enjoyment in adding an additional aircraft on to the ADF flights he hears 'checking in' on civil ATC freq's.

The first you hear is:

"one"
"two"
"Three"
"Four"

pause

(Our hero) "Five"

Giggles all round as we all knew exactly what was going on.......


Tag

[Howard Hughes]

(Our hero) "Five"
Love it!:ok:

Perhaps we could get a round going... six, seven, eight, nine, ten!;)

[Green on, Go!]

Towards the end of an FCI course, I remember:

'Marginal' &
'Unsat'

[Desert Flower]

Ah yeah, but what about good old Whiptail Stinger, eh. Those were the days...

Yep, Iroquios. Barra, Lancer & Manta too! Can anyone remember what the root word "Torch" was used for?

DF.

[Teal]

Two that I remember - originally used by Mirage jets operating out of RAAF Base Williamtown - were Ramrod and Buckshot.

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

Two that I remember - originally used by Mirage jets operating out of RAAF Base Williamtown - were Ramrod and Buckshot

I thought "Buckshot" was used by F111 ?

Dr :8

[scran]

Agreed FTDK:

Buckshot and Ramrod are/were F111 callsigns. Buckshot plus a weapon (Colt, Carbine) were 1 Squadron.

The Mirages were Maple for 2OCU, Despot for 77 Squadron, Stingray were the 2OCU Macchi's. Going WAY back (even before my time - first tour at Willy was 1976-79) 76 Squadron (disbanded before I arrived) used Fairway (I understand) plus a big cat - Leopard, Panther etc

In Butterworth at the time (79-81) 75 Squadron were Classic plus a bird (Magpie, Plover!!!) and 3 Squadron were Prison plus a snake - Venom, Adder, Viper, Rattler

The Malaysian F5's were initially Keris (the knife) but changed soon after I arrived to Kilau (not sure) plus a colour - but in this case the Amlay/Bahasa - so Mas (Gold) Intan (silver) are the two I remember. Always fun talking to the flight lead when they were Keris Mas (say it quickly....)

Few others I remember were the Canadain Cl114's (Tudors) were called Tebuan's by the Malays, and their callsign was "Tulip". When they visited for exercises the always parked in the same area - which we referred to as the Tulip Patch. Malay C130's were Anam, which I believe is the Bahasa for peace.


The SAR guys in Butterworth used to have one for a laugh. They would fly formation as Argus Tuft



say if fast..........:ok:

[Captain Sand Dune]

Torch = School of Air Navigation (SAN) HS748. So you won't hear much of them nowadays!

[gliderboy]

Love truncheon, was a 36 SQN Herc on Pitch Black '91........definitely NOT a yank aircraft.

C130: "Perth .....this is Love truncheon on 66"

PTH FIS: "Say again callsign?????"

C130: "Love Truncheon!"

PTH FIS: "Aah ....OK.....go ahead "


And while AOTW is reminiscing....forget Whiptail : whatabout Albatross Wheeler or Diver!!

[Oz_TB10]

Scran,

Kilau is Shinny, and Intan is Diamond. The Herc used to be Aman.

The few i hear now on the radio are Garang = Mean/Angry for the Aermacchi, Ular Tedung = Cobra for the MiG 29's. cant seem to remember the rest but Perdana = prime for VIP A319/BBJ/ Global Express. Think the Hercs now use Rajawali.

[scran]

OZ - sorry, you are correct - Intan does mean Diamond.

And ANAM was a spelling error - I concur it was AMAN

[Gnadenburg]

A few North Vietnamese in the 70's would agree.

Actually thousands of civilians were killed and maimed in B52 strikes in the North. They weren't alone. Laotians and Cambodians suffered horrific casualties too.

Some aspects of the American air campaigns over Indochina were bordering on crimes against humanity.

Anyways. Back to the call signs......

[Mick.B]

........................:{

[PAPI-74]

Air Forces Callsigns with Audio ( Callsigns call sign call signs callsign) (http://www.military-callsigns.eu/)

Handy site.....

[Pass-A-Frozo]

Mixed Herc formation: Titan..

I think each element of the form should adopt suffix callsigns.. Moist, Bleeding, etc.
:eek:

[Roller Merlin]

Callsigns were always a good laugh way back during RAAF huey bush-pushes. We would make up funny formation callsigns in the TACP - it also pissed off the grunt commanders which made it more fun.

(Arm-Out-The-Window and Capt Sandune would recall well!)

The boys would delight in checking-in RT with: 1 potato...2 potato..3 potato...4!

[Captain Sand Dune]

pissed off the grunt commanders which made it more fun

Easy to do, and fun to boot!:} Army = 0 sense of humour............:p

[Milt]

Dropkick

RAAF 77 Squadron went into action with Mustangs in Korea using Dropkick xx.

All was routine until a new arrival changed the o and the i around.

Then we were confused when a USAF ATC called a hold on landings because of a "dead dog" on the PSP. All 4 of us assumed that somone had landed wheels up. With fuel low we became concerned with nowhere else to go. Relief when ATC advised that a jeep was on its way to pick up the dead dog which had wandered on to the runway and been clobbered by the last aircraft to land.

[LUCKY-1]

No such fun in the RAF, our Herc's at Lyneham would usually have the pre-fix 'ASCOT-____'...said with plumb in mouth, of cource! Wot wot!!!:8

[Pedota]

In addition to PAPI-74's post, here's a summary of Australian military callsigns . . .

Royal Australian Air Force RAAF Callsigns (http://www.scanaustralia.bigpondhosting.com/military/RAAF/RAAF1.html)