F-16s Pursue Unknown Craft Over Region

Washington Post ^ | Saturday, July 27, 2002 | Steve Vogel

[Pro Consul]

"It was this object, this light-blue object, traveling at a phenomenal rate of speed," Rogers said. "This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust. I told my neighbor, 'I think those jets are chasing a UFO.' "

Military officials confirm that two F-16 jets from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled early yesterday after radar detected an unknown aircraft in area airspace. But they scoff at the idea that the jets were chasing a strange and speedy, blue unidentified flying object.

[Momaw Nadon]

No problem. I quite enjoyed it.

By the way, if you are a MIB, I promise I'll deny and totally shut up about anything to do with UFOs, scrambled jets, aliens ,etc.

:-)

[VaBthang4]

Awe put down the HaterAid.

[BJClinton]

Non-Operational--F-22

According to F22-raptor.com

"There are currently eight F-22s already flying."

[Gunrunner2]

>>I do not doubt your bonafides,<<

Thanks. I mean that.

>>But your reply#124 reads like I have read that somewhere before . It also almost matched perfectly to the report my BC made.<<

What is "your BC"?

[jwh_Denver]

Just breaking the soundbarrier.

Thanks! Now why didn't I think of that.

[Gunrunner2]

>>According to F22-raptor.com

"There are currently eight F-22s already flying." <<

Yes. I must explain.

"Operational" means given to operational forces and in use "operationally," i.e., "a squadron of F-22 deployed today. . ."

"Non-Operational" means we may have it and it is flying, but we have not given it to the troops yet.

My mistake.

[DAnconia55]

Nevermind your unreliable personal observations, ma'am. Don't you realize there is a perfectly reasonable government fictional press release to deal with??

[jws3sticks]

[Gunrunner2]

>>By the way, if you are a MIB, I promise I'll deny and totally shut up about anything to do with UFOs, scrambled jets, aliens ,etc.<<

Okayyyyy. . . (just in time, as he quickly punches the "blue" button that countermands the order sent earlier when gunrunner punched the "red" button that erased Momav Nadon from all official records and dispatched special officers to remove all physical traces of Nadon’s existence. Whew, that was close.

[BJClinton]

Of course, the article states the object was blue and the F-22s are all black. And they were picked up on radar, which isn't easy to do to a Raptor.

[WoofDog123]

This reminds me of that incident over phoenix several years ago, where literally dozens or more people taped and presumably thousands saw, but all it got was a page in usa today a month after the fact and was dropped. Fighters were scrambled for that one as well, though I don't recall whether the ANG later denied scrambling anything or not.

[Gunrunner2]

Got that right.

[GBA]

With regards to your F-15 and A-10 time and your friend's, my jealousy cup runneth over! And, fwiw, I think the A-10 is a very handsome machine. To be truly ugly, something just about has to be British, with the notable exceptions of the Spitfire and the Vulcan.

Perhaps you can answer something for me. The Powers That Be want to phase the A-10 out and maybe use it for FAC while replacing it with the F-16. The argument is that faster is better, even though it is softer. WTF, over? My money's on the A-10. Care to compare?

[WoofDog123]

Apparently some of the cattle bloodless-disections are popping up in argentina again as well.

[Ben Bolt]

The problem I believe comes from primarily 2 sources . The wanna b's , and the lies that the FedGov puts out here for those sheeple .

Uh .. dont get started on that guy come on now ;)!

I honestly do not have a clue berned . The aerocraft made very rapid motions North and South , literally faster than any of us could blink . They did this both nights .

They flew sideways both nights . They hovered both nights , also at the exact 8 digit grid coordinates . Both nights my radio and the back up went dead .

All 4 of us filed the exact report from seperate rooms and the brass did not by it . What happened was , they were going to bolo me because of a security flaw so there was a big stink about the break in communications .

I honestly do not have a clue what they were or the agenda but we 4 know what we saw . All of us were 20 years old in 1980 , and still when we talk about it our memories and observations have not changed .

[Gunrunner2]

>>Perhaps you can answer something for me. The Powers That Be want to phase the A-10 out and maybe use it for FAC while replacing it with the F-16. The argument is that faster is better, even though it is softer. WTF, over? My money's on the A-10. Care to compare?>>

Yes. Quickly.

The A-10 was originally designed to be a close air support (CAS) aircraft that was dedicated to killing Soviet tanks. The gun on the A-10 is unmatched and does that job quite well—see Gulf War.

The A-10 is being used as a airborne FAC right now. The A-10, with its long loiter time and slower speed allow it to stay in the target area, find targets, mark them and then call in the “fast jets” to “hit my smoke.” However, what usually happens is the A-10 finds targets and kills them, and only stops killing them when the “fast jet” shows up for “one pass, haul ass.” Not very efficient. For example, during the Gulf War and as a ground FAC with the 101st, I was working a 4-ship of A-10’s. They were beating the beejesus outta the target. The A-10’s dropped bunches of Mark-82’s and had a full load of 30mm to share. Then two F-16’s showed up, and the conversation went like this: “Antidote five-zero, this is Viper 22, two Mark 84’s, 5-minutes play time.” Great, I thought, two bombs and no time to hang around. I called the A-10’s and had them hold high and dry as I passed GPS coordinates to the F-16’s. The F-16’s swooped by, dropped their load in one pass, and left. Not much to shape the ground war. So I called the original A-10’s back into the target area and they continued to beat the piss outta the Iraqi’s. Point being, the Powers That Be wanted to kill the A-10 pre-Gulf War. Why? Because as a single mission aircraft (CAS) isn’t very versatile like a multi-mission F-16. However, the Gulf War demonstrated the A-10 was very effective and therefore we couldn’t very well retire them. So, we decided to retire the OV-10A “Bronco” and replace it with the OA-10. The Powers that Be know we need more A-10 type aircraft but they can’t find the bucks to buy more/upgrade. So they place their bets on multi-mission aircraft, hoping they can do the job in some small way. And besides, the CAS mission is now blurred between helo’s and fixed wing. It is a complicated subject.

Now, it used to be axiomatic that “speed is life,” but that only applies if you are an interceptor or doing sustained air-to-air engagements or fighting AAA/SAM’s. The maneuverability of the A-10, combined with its triple-redundant systems, gives it staying power---even when hit, and given the fact we usually have air supremacy, the A-10 is the perfect weapon.

That’s all on the subject for now.

[joanie-f]

Some things are "virtually" possible.

A bureaucracy is a fixed thing, generally, like the Maginot Line.

I'm tryin' hard, but I can't improve on that, Mike.

[Ben Bolt]

Sorry , BC is , rather was my Battalion Commander . I'll never forget him . LTC Charles Beckwith ;)

[Ben Bolt]

I've been missing that guy lately ;)

[Gunrunner2]

Oh. . .that explains it. Don't know the guy, was he with the 101st?

You know, I was miserable during my time with the Army, but looking back at it, it was a tremendous experience--humping a ruck full of radios and all!