HeyEng

Could my post on “WB-57F and Drone Swarms” over on the General Discussion be move over or combined as well? There’s three pages so maybe just the last few threads.

Judging by the size and scope of the Drone swarm story over New Jersey maybe this needs its own thread. I saw a report from a local broadcaster who was sort of a sceptic and thought most of the sightings was hysteria (some sightings are definitely conventional aircraft) or misidentification and was doing a report on the New Jersey State Police deploying drones of their own and attempting to track them when drones started appearing while broadcasting. The NJSP drones were quite large and sophisticated in themselves but the Police said they had no luck tracking them due to the speed and lack of any infrared signature of the suspect drones!

And non-standard (I.e red/green) lights at that? The who thing is weird! If it was a major power doing some sort of synthetic radar reconnaissance of major bases for intelligence you would think they would be blacked out. Yet this seems too big for just some miscreant drone hobbyists. As I mentioned in the beginning of this thread the Langley incursions were supposedly imaged by NASA WB-57F planes but the results of that imagery and where the drones were heading to/coming from are completely unknown. If one image of the type of drone released it might help in figuring out who might have made it. We were very quick to point out China’s involvement in the ballon over N.C. (but very silent in the others we shot down) as well as pointing the finger at Russia with the attempted DHL bombings but are very reluctant in these increasing drone incursions.

There was also a drone swarm over New Jersey with witnesses claiming car sized drones were flying all night long. I doubt they were quite that big and it would be hard to accurately judge the size of something flying at night but it does seem that these are not hobbyists sized drones and I wonder how long even a large sized quadcopter type of drone could stay aloft. or are these fixed wing drones? Also while the operators could be anywhere, these things still have to be recovered, refueled (or recharged?), servicing and maintained, etc. You would also think that sooner or later a bearing would seize up, a linkage would break, a signal lost and one of these things would crash to earth.

It appears England is getting the drone swarm treatment with Mindenhall and Lakenheath seeing nightly incursions. Also in Arizona Air Force pilots are reporting drone encounters at military ranges with one being the size of a Reaper!

Actually I have found some good information on News Nation. In additional to Langley, there were several Navy bases near the area that were targeted as well. Despite the size of the drones they flew in a precise synchronized formation (some sort of data link synthetic radar?) Some appeared to be quadcopter style drones while others were fixed wing and probably launched off a ship out at sea.

Wait, there’s been other large scale drone swarms over bases lasting over two weeks that required NASA surveillance aircraft to track them?

What I meant is why is Langley targeted at the exclusion of other bases? Is it because Langley is near the water and these drones (which witnesses are saying are as large as cars) are operating off of ships and more inland bases are out of reach or launching and recovering these drones over land are not practical without getting caught? If so I would think you would see many Naval installations targeted as well. And for that matter why stop at installing anti-drone netting at just Langley? I would think that any base that has F-22, F-35, B-2, etc. should have anti-drone protection installed.

The War Zone is reporting that Langley is installing anti-drone netting around the enclosures for the F-22 to help combat drone intrusions at and around the base. In addition to being a physical barrier, the netting is assumed to help protect the aircraft from electro-optical snooping as well. It’s still curious as to why Langley is the base being targeted for these drone swarms, maybe its proximity to the ocean?

Is your job primarily Title 32 orders or Title 10? The Guard can be quite stingy when the State has to pay. Also the Guard sometimes forgets their own regs. I remember when I first went to the Guard they insisted they were not allowed to do digital signatures on any documents, only wet signatures. Since the Guard did have all their Regulations on the web it was an easy matter to do a search to find the equivalent regulations that matched the AFI for paperless signature requirements.

I would love to report that my friend’s retirement pay issue has been resolved but since he ran out of options he got his congressman involved and MyPers basically said we are going to halt what little effort they were doing to try and resolve this and just let the congressional process play out!

More information on the psyops campaign against the Sinovax. Facebook actually found out about the disinformation campaign and complained to the Pentagon about it since it fostered vaccine hesitancy but the Pentagon promised that it was only directed against China even though many people suffered in the Philippines and the Middle East. These countries would have gotten the Sinovax for free but instead were coerced into buying the Pfizer vaccine.

I retired back in 2014 but many of my Squadron mates are reaching age sixty or hitting the age sixty rollback and applying for their retirement and running into long delays getting their retirement pay (mine took six months). Apparently when the ARPC implemented a new FSS system back in January there was a massive data loss with over 60k people affected. Many veterans who were already long retired and collecting a check had to resubmit their retirement packages. As a result there is a huge backlog for ARPC to close out retirement applications. As you know once you turn in your CAC card you are effectively cut off from all your digital data and are at the whim of whatever data remains in the various support commands so needless to say it’s important to back up as much data as you can prior to retirement. If you retire after twenty years and will not collect until age sixty that means archiving that data so it will be preserved through multiple iterations of computer, software, and OS updates!

I just read on FB that the Bird in Hand at Mildenhall is closing due to the gate being extended or something like that? I have not stayed there in years and when I did I often stayed in one of the newer billeting buildings so I’m having a hard time remembering the place.

Are you referred to the tan line and four big bolts or the kill markings?

The WB-57F was recently used for the 2024 Solar Eclipse as well. They flew in a two ship formation at an altitude of over 50,000 ft using a special multi camera setup to catch the corona in different wavelengths.

Too true!

OPSEC!!!! When Col. Bill Grimes wrote “The History of BIG SAFARI” he went through the proper requirements and it was approved for public release by WPAFB Public Affairs under Case Number: 88ABW-2013-1703, Disposition Date: 12 Apr 2013 The mission Danger41 mentions against the Iraqi Kari Radar systems is covered in the book.

That is mentioned in the book. It was called SCATHE MEAN and BQM-74C Chukar Drones were modified and used similar to what the Israelis did during the Yom Kippur War against Egyptian Radars. The ad hoc team had to buy camping gear and other supplies from Walmart and Sam’s Club. Trucks were purchased and painted desert tan but had to be deployed so quickly they were never registered which created problems when they were returned to the states.

One of the topics I neglected to mention was where I got some of the information on the RB-57. For a fascinating history of this and other specialized aircraft I recommend the book “The History of BIG SAFARI” by Col. Bill Grimes. This book was a trip down memory lane and brought back memories from when I was a B-52G Crew Chief back in the ‘80s and my line supervisor worked on RC-135 aircraft in Alaska before being transferred to Bombers. He would regale me with tales of fantastically modified RC-135 aircraft (sometimes for a single mission) that I sometimes thought he was just embellishing to make a compelling story. After reading this book I wish I could remember more of those stories since they were all true!

Also it may be the only jet flying that has turbofans buried in the wings! (At least in the US, I’m not sure if the British still fly the Nimrod)

ADMIN NOTE: The drone posts from the NASA WB-57F and Iran threads were merged into this one. As they were transferred based on their time stamp, CH's original post for this thread is now on page 3 (sorry CH!). A link to this was added to those threads. ~ M2 The NASA WB-57F aircraft made the news after it was revealed that it took part in collecting data on Drone Swarms off the coast of Virginia in the vicinity of Joint Base Langley. The WB-57 has probably one of the longest service careers in the US Military, it was originally a licensed built bomber from Martin Aircraft and based on the English Electric Canberra and was one of the first US jet aircraft to drop bombs in combat. It found a new life as a Reconnaissance platform and continuously modified over the years in programs such as SECOND SLICE/RIVET SLICE, TROPIC MOON and RIVET RAP. The WB-57F bears little resemblance to the original design with TF33 Turbofans and new, outer enlarged wing sections. After being retired from the USAF, a handful of aircraft were donated to NASA for use in atmospheric research. As to the Drone Swarms, there is little to say about that story and will probably soon disappear from the news altogether! https://www.twz.com/air/mysterious-drones-swarmed-langley-afb-for-weeks

Ha! In reality apparently there is an electric rocker switch on the top of the seat with a cover to move the seat in and out while your are standing. The switch was loose allowing the cover to activate the switch when the FA put their hand on the back of the seat. Drove the pilot right into the yoke and kicked off the AP with considerable nose down input to the yoke!

An IL-76 was reportedly shot down and crashed. One engine appears on fire but this alone should have not caused a crash so maybe there was additional damage. https://warisboring.com/second-russian-military-transport-plane-comes-down-since-january/?fbclid=IwAR1qGCJ8p9y3aR3l4pv61kOg9aO2A0cqsxkR8654UesdBuUHlDnQsRoZiYw_aem_AaM4aJCKbEEF5pjC1t-0cIyK7ZH9AstX8CqYNQBosEK5FrsdJMUD-sCr3zPPpq06zMw#ltp4tr1qbv0ccfq0vuf