Venezuela Says Its Jets Intercepted U.S. Plane

WSJ ^ | JANUARY 9, 2010 | WSJ

[Brilliant]

President Hugo Chávez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice violated Venezuelan airspace on Friday in what he called the latest provocation in the South American nation's skies.

Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Mr. Chávez said the overflight was the latest incursion in Venezuelan skies by the U.S. military from its bases on the Netherlands' Caribbean islands and from neighboring Colombia.

There was no immediate response from the U.S. Defense Department or the White House...

Mr. Chávez said the F-16s escorted the U.S. plane away after two incursions lasting 15 and 19 minutes each.

The perceived threat of U.S. intervention has become a central element of Mr. Chávez's political discourse and a rallying cry for his supporters.

Foes say the president is hyping the idea of a foreign threat to distract Venezuelans from domestic problems such as a recession and inadequate public services. Mr. Chávez surprised the diplomatic world in December when he accused the Netherlands of abetting potential offensive action against his government by granting U.S. troops access to its islands close to Venezuela.

The Dutch government says the U.S. presence is only for counternarcotics and surveillance operations over Caribbean smuggling routes.

[Tarpon]

See the P-3, look at the tail, that’s a sonar boom.

If it carrys weapons they are anti-sub weapons, depth charges and such. Seems weird that Bluto would see one of these over Venezuela so far from their usual haunts, sea partol. Who is worried about Venezuelan Sea Power. It might be spying on drug boats, Bluto got something to hide?

The Bluto of Venezuela is nuts, and like with ZERO, badly needs a distraction right now because the poeple are now figuring out why they are starving and elecricity is going out.

[Patriot2A]

Actually, P-3 CDU’s (counter drug units) have FLIR, cameras and other sensors that can “see”hidden airfields and drug labs, and of course, military targets. Yes, they have SIGINT sensors onboard (nothing classified here-it is all over the www.) I flew on P-3’s from Panama, and Roosevelt Roads, PR for 4 yrs, all over Source Zones of narcotics (CO,PE,VE) and the Caribbean drop zones (CU, PR, DR, HT, etc). We once were tailed by Venezuelan fighters and another time by Peruvian fighters, whom even shot warning rounds at us. These incidents are more common than people think; they just never get publicized. Many times we also had CO and PE fighters or bombers working with us so we could find hidden runways where the drug-runners just landed, and they would straff/bomb the strips and adyacent labs. After a while, they were “unable” to see the targets, even after we lit up the sky with flares or used IR markers...they were either threatened or bought off. Peace. SHADOW FIVE.

[darkwing104]

Foes say the president is hyping the idea of a foreign threat to distract Venezuelans from domestic problems such as a recession and inadequate public services.

aka...the Democrat domestic policy after healthcare passes...

[ncfool]

Seems we sell planes to anybody who wants to buy them. Let’s see what happens in the Middle east as the Islam tide gets stronger.

[El Gato]

If there was a P-3 sniffing around Hugo's butt, it probably looked more like this one:

Or this one, which got rammed by an Chinese jet

[EricT.]

What’s this assclown doing with F16s - also the parts to maintain them and the training to operate them?

That's what I was wondering...

[El Gato]

What’s this assclown doing with F16s - also the parts to maintain them and the training to operate them?

IIRC, as with Iranian F-14s, they were supplied to a "former regime", before old Hugo's time. Spares for F-16s are likely not all that hard to come by, considering how many places F-16s are built and how many places fly them.

[A.A. Cunningham]

See the P-3, look at the tail, that’s a sonar boom.

Incorrect. That is a MAD boom - Magnetic Anomaly Detector. It senses small variations in the magnetic field of the earth - like those caused by the large ferromagnetic mass of a submarine or ship. SONAR is accomplished with the P-3 by the use of sonobuoys launched from the belly of the aircraft into the drink and then monitoring the radio transmissions from said buoy.

[stboz]

But Obama is the 90 lb. weakling on the beach, reading poetry and getting sand kicked in his face.

I doubt it. Yomama is a Quisling whose role is to get in the way and provide distraction and cover for an agenda that leads to serfdom.

[Rebelbase]

"Obama is the 90 lb. weakling on the beach,"

[stboz]

We need to go trolling with a snooper....followed by a flight of Raptors.

[Grampa Dave]

Shades of the not so cold “Cold War”.

[Tarpon]

Yes you are right, but sonar makes more sense to most who don't know what technology is ...

The P-3 Orion was specifically designed to detect submarines. We designed and installed some of the COMSEC electronics for the P-3, and a lot that cannot be talked about in open forums or private conversations for that matter. The US security agreements we signed are still in force.

So I used a term that most would likely understand, sonar, many used that characterization inside the designers world as well, it hid somewhat what was really going on to the lay person, lazy and easy ... Sorry for joining the lazy crowd ... What's a magnetic anomaly detector — Well its sort of like a sonar for subs. OK I get it. The long MAD boom is the characteristic feature of the P-3 Orion sub hunter.

There are far better aircraft and instrument packages to do what the Bluto of Venezuela was talking about than is carried by the now mostly obsolete P-3s. Today I think the only thing they do is drug interdiction patrol, but even then their equipment is highly dated. Their last upgrade was about 10 years ago, and the P-3 airframe is basically a Lockheed Electra 188 last built in I think the 1960s. Today Moffett Field is used to house google millionaires personal airplanes ... LOL. The thousands that were employed there to hunt subs has been laid off. I think that Moffett Naval Air Station has been decommissioned and turned over to NASA a while back, or something like that.

Above is one of the original freight converted Electra's. I seriously doubt a P-3 was what was allegedly spotted, if anything.

But back to the original article intent, it's nothing more than a distraction being used by Bluto to try and take the people off their real problem, they are slowly starving.

[Tarpon]

Yep, that’s the most likely Electra P-3, EP-3E ARIES II or derivative, the ones with the radar domes. But aren’t these now used for drug boat searching. So maybe Hugo has a drug boat flotilla?

But the whole 60s era Elctra airframe is mostly obsolete, there are far better modern aircraft now in service for surveillance. Maybe they gave some of them to the DEA ...

[Tarpon]

Seems we sell planes to anybody who wants to buy them.

Yes and then we sell them spare and replacement parts ... What we don't sell is the mission critical electronics packages, those are much more closely guarded, or at least before Obama they were.

[Republic of Texas]

I doubt he has many F-16’s, and even fewer trained pilots. As always, it’s the pilots and tactics that make the difference.

[Ancient Drive]

LOL @ Chavez.. you dufus they let u intercept them.

[Cold Heat]

We need to encourage this guy to have a accident.

[Chode]

adding a few hard points for some air to air self defense might surprise the little toadies someday

[jagusafr]

An ignorant xenophobe - dangerous and pathetic at the same time.

Colonel, USAFR