British military pilots are training in American-built F-15E Strike Eagles. They fly low as 250 feet at high speed, putting them below the line of sight of spectators positioned higher on the hills. That's exceptionally low. The whole thing is to train to fly low to avoid radar.
Daily Mail, several more photos at the link.
Comments from people with military interests are always reliably a bit whacked.
Oh yeah?
Yeah.
Let's see.
I'll look through and pick out a couple. (There's only 423 of them)
* Interesting story. During the 90's as a German Air Force soldier I was stationed in Goodyear, Arizona, close to Luke AFB which was the major training base of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC), training pilots in the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Now home of over 140 F-35's. Due to having German Air Force pilots as Exchange Pilots I was given a 20 min flight as a farewell gift with a F-16 after having served 12 years. I have to admit those were one of the best 20 min of my life. Besides, awesome pics.
** Kant, you can't hide your true identity, you are Sargent Schultz from Stalag 13, "I see Nothing, Nothing" when asked about the EU's Faults.
* I used to watch the RAF doing the very same thing in the same place 30 years ago with Jaguars.
** The Americans learned this after watching RAF Buccaneers doing it at Red Flag and beating their radar.
[Sure. Whatever makes you feel better about yourself in your shrunken empire on your little island watching them practice in American planes and discussing it all in your language of dropped essential consonants and displaced Rs. Whatevs.]
* I was in Belize in 1984 in the jungle on exercise. a harrier put a simulated stick on our coy HQ I swear i felt this plane coming rather than hear it, I turned and if I had been standing on top of the 4 tonner lorry next to me i could have taken a stab at the pilot with my bayonet, white trails coming from the wings cracking like bull whips and the an almighty roar and jet wash bringing branch's down from tree tops. fantastic!
[That was flat. This is terrain. And your bayonet would have to be 500 ft. It just seemed to be close.]
** My husband was with the Harriers in Belize in 1984. He had to carry out an inspection on a plane that had been left in its hangar for about 9 months. He opened the hangar door but it was gloomy so he switched his torch on and swung the light across the plane's wheels. Staring back at him was a spider, with its legs stretched across the wheel. As far as he knows the plane is still in its hangar, waiting for another inspection.
[A spider! Yikes.]
* Not the same, I know, but every day at 3.35 pm we'd hear the crack as Concorde went subsonic over our house. Really miss it.
[Ah, those lovely sonic booms. Yeah, that's not the same as this.]
* Soon as I saw the LN on the vertical stabilator I knew they were from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath. By the way "top gun" is a term used by the US Navy, not the USAF. The USAF equivalent are graduates of the Fighter Weapons School, run at Nellis AFB, Nevada. The F-15's being used at Lakenheath are actually quite old now. When I was there we had F-100s and those got traded in for F-4s. The blue stripe on the top indicates they were from the 492nd Tactical Fighter Squadron. Mostly these are 1997 to 1999 aircraft, which makes most of them about 20 years old. Makes me proud! I spent two USAF tours at Lakenheath and RAF Alconbury, not long after I became a US citizen. Just so long as Welsh sheep don't make noise complaints, I'd be happy. I worked in Public Affairs, and had to answer complaints from the locals!
[Navy is gay. Their submariners are called "bottom gun." You can buy a hat or a t-shirt, jackets and such, and advertise your preference at gay bars.]
And so on. The comments are actually quite pleasant and civil. But anyone with any military training cannot even talk without using strings of abbreviations of letters and numbers for units, divisions, regiments, specific equipment, armaments, locations that make sense only to other people who've experienced the same thing or studied extensively but they write as if everyone knows what they're talking about. Like Barney Fife.
3 comments:
Video.
Awesome at 1080p. An Osprey comes thru at 5:30 with the rotors partially vertical. Odd looking thing.
I was given a 20 min flight as a farewell gift with a F-16 after having served 12 years. I have to admit those were one of the best 20 min of my life. Besides, awesome pics.
That's a pilot for you. They all think they're Hell on wheels with women, but they'd rather be in a plane.
With cell phone technology, avoiding radar may not be as big as it once was. If people can see you they can call it in. A wise government would encourage its citizens to do so.
Of course, if the government is full of SOBs, they might lie about it.
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