'Unknown' aircraft at Akrotiri

[BVRAAM]

I enjoyed watching Bono take off on departures day at RIAT in 2017.....

[pr00ne]

This thread neatly encapsulates the farcical nonsense of most British military security, focussing far more on keeping information from it's own members and the general public that is widely known by, and in some cases officially telegraphed to, the 'opposition'....

[Asturias56]

You mean like an Army mate who lives close to the extended runway line of Fairford and hasn't seem any of these mystery aircraft over the last 5 years and which certainly weren't in transit from Cyprus to the USA and vv every month or so................

[pr00ne]

Asturias56,

You mean those frequent movements that are pre alerted by public NOTAM and photographed and shared in fine detail and almost real time on dozens of spotter and modeller sites?

[BEagle]

Several years ago I was down at MPA yet again protecting the Bennies from the threat of invasion . Predictably our VC10K was declared as a 'war goer' whilst waiting for some spares to be flown down by TriStar. One fine day the hooter went and we were called to readiness. After the F-3s launched, our trusty Landrover valiantly struggled against the headwind as we set off to the jet, before we climbed aboard and declared on-state, war goer.

Listening to the R/T was much fun. Q1 and 2 soon closed on the contact and an excited SOC controller started asking questions: "Are there any markings?" "Yes, mate - it says 'Aerolineas Argentinas' on the side!". Shortly afterwards Q was hauled off and we all reverted to RS boredom.

This was in the very early days of the Internet and with only very slow dial-up connections from our side of the aerodrome. Nevertheless, I had a thought and asked one of the Herk mates, who was a bit of an Internet whizz, "Hey - see if you can find something like aerolineas argentinas dot com and look for some timetables". Mate disappeared into the boss's office and after about 10 min of clicking and muttering, he suddenly yelled "Found it!". So we downloaded the day's schedules, printed them out and faxed them down to the Tic-TOC with our compliments...

About 5 seconds later, the phone rang. It was some Intell weeny - "Where did you find this high value intelligence? We've been trying to get hold of their schedules for weeks. This is all highly classified and shouldn't have been sent by insecure fax!"....

That well-known oxymoron - military intelligence!

[SASless]

We inherited that from you lot it seems.

One Sunday morning in the Philippines as I was sat in my skivvies enjoying a late breakfast after a much later evening the night before....yet to shower/shave etc.....the Talking Bone begins to ring.

I picked it up...and it was my Navy OC on the other end.

As was the Duty Agent for the Day...with every expectation of not getting a call out of any kind....the fact it was the OC himself and not the Base Police calling....I got a bit of a surprise.

Him...."Special Agent Sasless....you are the Duty Agent for the Subic Navy Base today....right?"

Me....Yessir....how can I help you?

Him...."I need you to do a Protective Services Detail thingy today!" (Body Guard Detail)

Me....Errrr.....ahhhhh....uhhhhhhh.....PSD...today?

Him...."Yes...today!"

Me....Who is it for?

Him....."This is not a secure line....I cannot tell you."

Me....(never mind what I was thinking about the rumors that the OC was an Idiot) Errr....Skipper....can you give me just a small hint so I know who to look for?"

Him....Lots of stuttering....finally he says......"Philippine 6 Alpha".

Me....Doing some quick thinking....realizes he is talking about the Wife of the Philippine President at the time....Imelda Marcos.

Me...Skipper when is the Principle (Marcos) going to arrive?

Him...."In one hour at Cubi Point Naval Air Station."

Me...(Now in what can only be described as a "Holy **** Doc!" reaction). Right Skipper...have you notified the Cubi Point Agent...or either of the Special Agents in Charge at either Office?

Him...."No....but I don't have time as I have to make a Tee Time in a few minutes."

I am not making this up.....in the end we pulled it off....a full detail of agents, my house mate handing out guns as the vehicles drove through the Main Gate into town, my Boss wearing swim trunks riding in the Ambulance, and the Detail dressed in various states of dress from shorts and flip flops to our daily work outfits.

Mind you it was a twenty minute drive to Cubi Point to meet the arriving aircraft with Ms Marcos.

I never did see the C-130 that was supposed to follow her around with her spare sets of shoes.

[meleagertoo]

Thanks for the clarification people, though I'm still flummoxed by how anyone can pretend that the existence of an aircraft that's been seen on a daily basis and frequently displayed in public for the best part of half a century can be considered "secret"in any way at all, let alone why anyone woud want to pretend it so.

[andrewn]

Originally Posted by hoodie

Is there anybody with even a passing aviation interest in Cyprus who doesn't know that the U-2 has regularly operated from there for decades?

There have been multiple threads on here that mention it, for one thing.

Claiming "Need to Know" is rather precious - especially from the topic starter!

All the pompous "in jokes" aside it IS amusing if you ever get the opportunity to listen in to ATC over there, that they still never actually ackowledge the aircraft type to others, they simply refer to it as "local traffic" or something equally mundane! So it COULD be the flying club Ce.172, although the broad US accent and not very oblique RT callsign is a bit of a giveaway

[CONSO]

About keeping secrets - In palmdale, the plant that did the final assembly of the B2 bomber was surrounded on several sides by high built up earthen berms to prevent inadvertent photos if hangar doors were opened of what was inside. Of course when rollout of the first flight model was to take place great effort was made to only allow a front view for the press and dignataries and severe restrictions were in place regarding views/photos which might show the trailing edges and certain features of stealth technology.

But the mensa intel types- forgetting that a public airport was quite close - a few hundred yards at best - did not think to close the airspace during the rollout . The result is history. Seems that Avaiation Week ( sometimes called avaition leak ) simply hired a cessna for their photographer to fly overhead during the rollout. The resulting photo can be found- along with part of the story

https://uspolitics.10ztalk.com/2018/...omber-rollout/

And then there is the story ( possibly embellished ) about the plant in east los angeles that was the ' engineering- design ' building complex. knowing that the russian satellite made passes over the area from time to time- somehow the roof got painted with a fewlarge letters from the cyrillic alphabet which a rough translation suggested a physical impossibility or the equivalent of a freeway salute

[BossEyed]

CONSO, the B-2 rollout thing is a great story and far be it from me to suggest that AvLeak might have reasons to embellish how sensitive the planform was supposed to be that day, but... this is a photo from the spectators' viewpoint, taken at the rollout ceremony.

Check out the star.

[Asturias56]

Originally Posted by pr00ne

Asturias56,

You mean those frequent movements that are pre alerted by public NOTAM and photographed and shared in fine detail and almost real time on dozens of spotter and modeller sites?

Classic case of Mass Delusion - it never happened, they never happened, I know nuffin', it's all a bad dream................

[CONSO]

Bosseyed- The AV week story is true and factual- and I can assure you the reasons to reduce closeup views of the backside were much more than the " sawtooth " configuration .

[Laarbruch72]

Originally Posted by meleagertoo

Thanks for the clarification people, though I'm still flummoxed by how anyone can pretend that the existence of an aircraft that's been seen on a daily basis and frequently displayed in public for the best part of half a century can be considered "secret"in any way at all, let alone why anyone woud want to pretend it so.

Of course It isn't secret, but the pompous old farts of PPruNe, none more so than the even more pompous and even older and fartier Mil Aviation regulars love to do this stuff; Hint heavily that they were privy to hush hush stuff, while really openly stating where, when and who it was that they "definitely didn't see". Just so you know they were actually there, so you can doff your cap to them. It's just a form of attention seeking really. If it was really secret, and someone was involved directly, it wouldn't be discussed here.
If you want to experience having a similar personality disorder, just hang around a bar wearing a veteran badge, occasionally touch your nose and say something like "I'd tell you but I'd have to kill you", and you too can feel like BEagle and a lot of the other old wrecks that make up the Mil (or rather the RAF of the 1960s and 70s) forum.

[SASless]

Someone must not be on friendly terms with the Missus for a while!

[langleybaston]

Originally Posted by Laarbruch72

Of course It isn't secret, but the pompous old farts of PPruNe, none more so than the even more pompous and even older and fartier Mil Aviation regulars love to do this stuff; Hint heavily that they were privy to hush hush stuff, while really openly stating where, when and who it was that they "definitely didn't see". Just so you know they were actually there, so you can doff your cap to them. It's just a form of attention seeking really. If it was really secret, and someone was involved directly, it wouldn't be discussed here.
If you want to experience having a similar personality disorder, just hang around a bar wearing a veteran badge, occasionally touch your nose and say something like "I'd tell you but I'd have to kill you", and you too can feel like BEagle and a lot of the other old wrecks that make up the Mil (or rather the RAF of the 1960s and 70s) forum.

And there was me thinking that the weather balloon that wasn't there was quite a good long-running joke, set to annoy the humourless and to entertain us old wrecks.

[BEagle]

Laarbruch72, perhaps your first post in the Military forum since Dec 2017 says more about you than about those you choose to insult?

Whatever - it adds nothing of any merit to the discussion at hand.

[Tashengurt]

I suppose I am heading into old fart territory but I thought it was just a long running joke around the impossibility of keepung something so loud and smokey secret.
It's only an "in" joke in as much as it's generally reserved for those who've seen it. Or haven't.

[Treble one]

Originally Posted by CONSO

Bosseyed- The AV week story is true and factual- and I can assure you the reasons to reduce closeup views of the backside were much more than the " sawtooth " configuration .

When the B2 last landed at RIAT and placed on static, it was specifically positioned to make it impossible to have a look around the back.

Armed Police guards were on hand to enforce this.

[Asturias56]

" you too can feel like BEagle and a lot of the other old wrecks that make up the Mil (or rather the RAF of the 1960s and 70s) forum."

Ooooohhhh Fight, Fight , FIGHT!!!!

That really is a bit harsh don't you think???????

PS if you have a complaint about Pilots just stay away from a Climbing Club or bar....................

[FODPlod]

Originally Posted by Laarbruch72

Of course It isn't secret, but the pompous old farts of PPruNe, none more so than the even more pompous and even older and fartier Mil Aviation regulars love to do this stuff...

Oooh!

How’s your New Year’s resolution to be better-humoured working out?