A400M det to Coastal Command?
Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: Scotland
Posts: 129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As for types and suitability, get the A400 low enough and that god-awful noise it makes will make anyone row away from it!
Not sure about the AEA they’re wearing in those pics, but lovin’ the cap. Do aircrew in a 4-engine prop really need to wear LSJs over the water or is this another crazy risk-averse SOP?! I’m hoping the FADEC software issues are sorted by now.
Not sure about the AEA they’re wearing in those pics, but lovin’ the cap. Do aircrew in a 4-engine prop really need to wear LSJs over the water or is this another crazy risk-averse SOP?! I’m hoping the FADEC software issues are sorted by now.
Hopefully the RN can work their way up to this challenge - being able to provide a recognised surface picture only, on an area about the size of a large lake in an uncontested and benign area of operations.
If the RN get the hang of it they could look to achieve a surface picture of say, the south coast. Clearly this capability will take a few years and probably best to ignore sub-surface or the air domain.
Beyond that, as a stretch target, the RN could try and have a loose idea of the surface picture around England, with a potential 'surge capability' to the inshore areas of Scotland and Wales.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule a few waves, and one day perhaps even inflatables.
Still, credit to the Boarder Force, Police Service, Coastguard, Typhoon Force, E-3D, Sentinel, Poseidon and Atlas for all having a go at maritime operations.
If the RN get the hang of it they could look to achieve a surface picture of say, the south coast. Clearly this capability will take a few years and probably best to ignore sub-surface or the air domain.
Beyond that, as a stretch target, the RN could try and have a loose idea of the surface picture around England, with a potential 'surge capability' to the inshore areas of Scotland and Wales.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule a few waves, and one day perhaps even inflatables.
Still, credit to the Boarder Force, Police Service, Coastguard, Typhoon Force, E-3D, Sentinel, Poseidon and Atlas for all having a go at maritime operations.
Man with binoculars
I did one of the trials of the first ones ( about 1972). They were actually monoculars but even so they made an enormous difference to the range at which you could identify something.
Last edited by oxenos; 12th Aug 2020 at 21:57.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,754
Received 2,738 Likes
on
1,166 Posts
Thread Starter
Master caution...sense of humour failure. FRC immediate action: check Pomposity master switch.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,754
Received 2,738 Likes
on
1,166 Posts
DEA aviation with their aircraft? Aircraft modified with the kit for Surveillance. How many surveillance cameras in all visual and IR ranges does an Atlas have bar spotters holding binos? DEA have the equipment and the skill set.
What figues do I need to show? The fuel burn of 4 Europrop TP400 engines or 2 PT6A turboprops? Right people with the right tools doing the right job. Maybe the Journo watching this should ask the question why we do not have the military tools to do local coastal control monitoring. Sorry, no RAF or Navy ex officers in Government. Just short service infantry grunts and weekend warriors. The former shout the loudest about the problem it seems.
What figues do I need to show? The fuel burn of 4 Europrop TP400 engines or 2 PT6A turboprops? Right people with the right tools doing the right job. Maybe the Journo watching this should ask the question why we do not have the military tools to do local coastal control monitoring. Sorry, no RAF or Navy ex officers in Government. Just short service infantry grunts and weekend warriors. The former shout the loudest about the problem it seems.
Totally agree with you, current assists being used seem to be totally overkill when all you need is a few DA’s which are economical with a good range.
https://www.diamondaircraft.com/en/a...-aviation-uk0/
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,754
Received 2,738 Likes
on
1,166 Posts
But then nothing surprises me, especially considering the rift in the Brexit negotiations over fisheries etc, while U.K. plc disposed of an asset without knowing the final outcome of the talks.
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/de...-clyde-2860894
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/de...-clyde-2860894
Shack in waiting
Fear not, the back up (meant to be top secret plan) button only has to be pushed to reactivate our 'resting' Shackleton at Newquay Airport. Poised to be available for total counter immigrant control including search and destroy. The twin point fives no longer fitted, but as only rubber boats straffing easily done with Marine with auto up front. Of course no violence will be needed as when the smoking and shaking bellowing contrarotating monster appears at nought feet looking very angry*, the boats will turn around and go back to a far more friendly French beach.
* suitable Sharks mouth art work to be added.
If the above is a bit late on delivery we also have a fleet of Islanders 'down west' that can appear at low level and skip drop time expired pasties that will shred a rib in seconds.
* suitable Sharks mouth art work to be added.
If the above is a bit late on delivery we also have a fleet of Islanders 'down west' that can appear at low level and skip drop time expired pasties that will shred a rib in seconds.
UKBF have 'quietly' been using drones operating out of Lydd until now; has that contract finished I wonder? (Not small ones either; they're about light aircraft size)
Hate to see a mid air between a drone and an Atlas/Posiedon.
Hate to see a mid air between a drone and an Atlas/Posiedon.
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 60
Posts: 12,597
Received 275 Likes
on
153 Posts
These will be accompanied by a squadron of seagulls, noted for their precision bombing...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,754
Received 2,738 Likes
on
1,166 Posts
It appears we have put out a contract to trial a drone and it may be in use now.
https://www.contractsfinder.service....rchResults&p=1
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-d...nglish-channel
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/engl...igrants-drones
The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) awarded an Israeli defence company with a contract worth almost £1 million to demonstrate and develop unmanned aerial vehicles – or drones – to enhance coastal surveillance operations.
Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of Haifa-based Elbit Systems, was awarded the £990,000 contract in February 2020, but the contract summary was only published on a government website in July.
According to the Invitation to Tender, the MCA was looking to “assess the potential use of UAV to augment current and future aerial surveillance capability by reducing, enhancing or replacing existing delivery methods”. The contractor that secured the deal would have to work out and implement a flying programme to showcase how drones could be deployed in various scenarios – including search for missing people or vessels, surveillance, and search for a missing person both on the ground and at sea.
The UK has grown increasingly keen on using drones to keep watch on its coasts, as media attention around the arrival of small groups of migrants on dinghies on British coasts has reached fever pitch. The home secretary Priti Patel has called on France and the rest of the European Union to make sure that migrants do not try to sail to the UK.
In January 2020, WIRED reported that a surveillance drone belonging to Portuguese company Tekever – which had recently signed a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence – was hovering for hours over the English Channel, in what appeared to be a patrolling operation.
Back then the Home Office declined to comment on the details of the operation, but stressed that the UK was working with France and other countries and resorting to technologies including drones to stem illegal crossings. Over the last few days, Tekever’s drone has kept flying twice a day over the English Channel, according to data by Flightradar24, a website that collects information about aircraft traffic. On one occasion, on August 4, Tekever’s drone criss-crossed the sea between Dover and Calais for over 21 hours.
More of this might be coming soon, since the MCA has made it clear that it plans to add more unmanned vehicles to its fleet, according to a BBC report from May 2020. That goes beyond the Elbit System programme. A tweet sent out from the Agency’s Twitter account on July 31 showed a MCA-liveried surveillance dronedesigned by Austrian company Schiebel flittering over North Wales in what the post described as “an operational evaluation”.
https://www.contractsfinder.service....rchResults&p=1
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-d...nglish-channel
At 9.59pm on December 9, an aircraft appeared over the English Channel. On aviation website FlightAware, the flight popped up suddenly, already airborne at 240 metres. In neon green, the flight-tracking website showed an apparently muddled path, tracing a scribble alongside the coastline between Dover and the village of Camber before landing at Lydd Airport in Kent around four hours later.
FlightAware labelled the flight under the tail number G-TEKV, a code that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) database registers as a “fixed-wing landplane (unmanned)”. Aka: a drone.
The flight took place four days after the BBC revealed unmanned aircraft would be flying from Lydd Airport to monitor people attempting to cross the channel from France by boat, a phenomenon that was declared a “major incident” in December 2018 by Sajid Javid, when he was home secretary. Since then, the number of migrant crossings has continued to rise. In 2019, at least 1,892 people had arrived in Kent and Sussex in small boats, according to research by the BBC. Another 1,235 attempting the journey were intercepted by authorities in France.
A spokesperson for the CAA said drones should not appear on flight trackers, but could not explain G-TEKV’s presence on the site. The Home Office said it has access to aerial surveillance, and works with partner agencies to make use of available assets. A spokesperson declined to comment on what company manufactures the drone based at Lydd, citing commercial sensitivities.
FlightAware labelled the flight under the tail number G-TEKV, a code that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) database registers as a “fixed-wing landplane (unmanned)”. Aka: a drone.
The flight took place four days after the BBC revealed unmanned aircraft would be flying from Lydd Airport to monitor people attempting to cross the channel from France by boat, a phenomenon that was declared a “major incident” in December 2018 by Sajid Javid, when he was home secretary. Since then, the number of migrant crossings has continued to rise. In 2019, at least 1,892 people had arrived in Kent and Sussex in small boats, according to research by the BBC. Another 1,235 attempting the journey were intercepted by authorities in France.
A spokesperson for the CAA said drones should not appear on flight trackers, but could not explain G-TEKV’s presence on the site. The Home Office said it has access to aerial surveillance, and works with partner agencies to make use of available assets. A spokesperson declined to comment on what company manufactures the drone based at Lydd, citing commercial sensitivities.
- CAA records show the unmanned aircraft flying with the tail number G-TEKV is the 7.3m x 4.0m AR5 model manufactured by the Portuguese IT, defense and aerospace group Tekever. In the UK, G-TEKV is registered to Tekever’s office in the University of Southampton’s Science Park. (Incidentally, the company was visited by local MP Caroline Nokes in August 2018, when she was immigration minister).
The UK is spending big on migrant-tracking drones to surveil the seas
As media attention around the arrival of small groups of migrants on dinghies reaches fever pitch, a government contract offers a glimpse of the futureThe UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) awarded an Israeli defence company with a contract worth almost £1 million to demonstrate and develop unmanned aerial vehicles – or drones – to enhance coastal surveillance operations.
Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of Haifa-based Elbit Systems, was awarded the £990,000 contract in February 2020, but the contract summary was only published on a government website in July.
According to the Invitation to Tender, the MCA was looking to “assess the potential use of UAV to augment current and future aerial surveillance capability by reducing, enhancing or replacing existing delivery methods”. The contractor that secured the deal would have to work out and implement a flying programme to showcase how drones could be deployed in various scenarios – including search for missing people or vessels, surveillance, and search for a missing person both on the ground and at sea.
The UK has grown increasingly keen on using drones to keep watch on its coasts, as media attention around the arrival of small groups of migrants on dinghies on British coasts has reached fever pitch. The home secretary Priti Patel has called on France and the rest of the European Union to make sure that migrants do not try to sail to the UK.
In January 2020, WIRED reported that a surveillance drone belonging to Portuguese company Tekever – which had recently signed a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence – was hovering for hours over the English Channel, in what appeared to be a patrolling operation.
Back then the Home Office declined to comment on the details of the operation, but stressed that the UK was working with France and other countries and resorting to technologies including drones to stem illegal crossings. Over the last few days, Tekever’s drone has kept flying twice a day over the English Channel, according to data by Flightradar24, a website that collects information about aircraft traffic. On one occasion, on August 4, Tekever’s drone criss-crossed the sea between Dover and Calais for over 21 hours.
More of this might be coming soon, since the MCA has made it clear that it plans to add more unmanned vehicles to its fleet, according to a BBC report from May 2020. That goes beyond the Elbit System programme. A tweet sent out from the Agency’s Twitter account on July 31 showed a MCA-liveried surveillance dronedesigned by Austrian company Schiebel flittering over North Wales in what the post described as “an operational evaluation”.
It's all very well these, no doubt, expensive drones tracking the inflatables crossing the Channel, but they're not stopping them. The suggestion of a low-flying Islander dropping time-expired pasties might be the best solution......Oh! Hang on, Greenpeace and St Greta of Thunberg would probably object to that because they might cause environmental pollution.
RAF P-8 Poseidon, ZP802, 12 August, low level flight.
https://www.radarbox.com/data/registration/ZP802
https://www.radarbox.com/data/registration/ZP802
You could have WW2 era Royal Observer Corps style bods stationed up on the white cliffs with binos and field telephones and probably be just as effective at spotting them.......but again, that's not the issue.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,754
Received 2,738 Likes
on
1,166 Posts
I wonder if you could claim the nice new boat you found on the beach...
You need to drones to broadcast in French, you are under arrest, please follow our drone back to France. then head for the UK and watch them turn around and flee... back to France
You need to drones to broadcast in French, you are under arrest, please follow our drone back to France. then head for the UK and watch them turn around and flee... back to France
