For your information, military jets do not need to wrap themselves in "tinfoil" to avoid being seen on radar. First of all, they can set their transponders to where they don't respond to civilian transponder interrogation. Secondly, they carry electronic countermeasures that allow them to evade detection on military radar. Civilian radar is much less sophisticated than military radar, accordingly, is much easier to fool.
So why would a military pilot, in friendly skies, need to do this?
Under ordinary conditions, true. Not true when an aircraft is on a combat mission under wartime rules. I'd say that morning of September 11, 2001, our fighter aircraft guarding Washington DC were operating under wartime rules.
Would you mind sharing your source of this information with me?
Once we were no longer under attack, I'm sure the rules reverted back to normal.
Perhaps you are wrong? Maybe the threat condition was maintained up until commecial air traffic resumed? From there, perhaps the threat condition gradully ratched down to what we now know as our current "yellow" threat condition?
Commercial airliners carry a transponder which identifies their altitude, airspeed, and identifying information. Military aircraft are equipped with transponders that function that way in normal conditions, but in a combat mode, they operate in a different mode using classified frequencies. They would not show up on civilian radar.
Would you mind providing a source for that information?
I guess it was a waste of money to spend all that cash on the design of the Stealth Bomber, since a switch can make it invisible to "military radar" - what a dope that guy is!
The skies were not friendly that morning. We were under attack, and the scope of the threat was unknown.
Would you mind sharing your source of this information with me?
Let's just call it an educated assumption.
Perhaps you are wrong? Maybe the threat condition was maintained up until commecial air traffic resumed? From there, perhaps the threat condition gradully ratched down to what we now know as our current "yellow" threat condition?
When it was known that a hijacked airliner was heading towards Washington DC, where two airliners already had impacted the WTC and another had impacted into the Pentagon, I'd say that the threat level was a much higher state than it was later that evening. Any interceptors defending Washington DC that morning would have been effectively flying a combat mission of the highest national security significance.
Would you mind providing a source for that information?
It's common knowledge. Do a Google search on IFF. Basically, the standard transponder can be switched off, just as the terrorists had done on the hijacked flights.