Army surveillance aircraft - what does it do?

kyleb said:
My thought was you declare a no-fly zone. You can selectively enforce it. Maybe with Stinger (or AIM-9) armed drones to encourage the Taliban not to fly their helicopters there. And in the meantime, use some of the same resources (and more, if you have the ability) to attrit Taliban hardware as the opportunity arises.
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I think we’re absolutely on the same side as far as what we’d like to see. It really eats me up inside to see how all of this is unfolding. I don’t think the Taliban is a force for good and if Massoud’s son is setting up a resistance movement that is the corner I think we should back. I think Afghanistan would be a different country, in a good way, if he hadn’t been assassinated two days prior to the 9-11 attacks.

I don’t think a no fly zone in Afghanistan would be effective and a selectively enforced one even less so. The time enroute will be too long and I think it is likely the Taliban would receive enough advanced warning to land anything they may be able to get airborne before any of our assets arrived.

Declaring a no fly zone made me immediately think of Michael from the office declaring bankruptcy. I’m only adding this clip because it makes me laugh and I’m two bourbon and cokes into the weekend. Like I said, I think you and I agree with what we’d like to see happen.
 
kyleb said:
A) You have a point.
B) I'm a bit vindictive and would like to make sure the Taliban doesn't get free run of the place anytime soon.
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I know what you mean. I have no objection to individuals going over there to fight them or contributing money to such a fight. Certainly a moral thing to do given the Taliban's character.
 
Lndwarrior said:
Saw this bad boy on the ramp at Salinas today. When I asked one of the aircrew if I could take a pic? "As long as you don't get to close," he says. Clearly he was not into talking so I snapped a quick pic and walked away.

The local FBO dude said they nicknamed it the Drag Queen! Great name when you see all the crazy stuff hanging off of it. It even had some strange stuff suspended above the wings. Some crazy antenna?View attachment 99480
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Imagine the electrical system to run it all! There is a reason you can buy a 350 with -67's!
 
Robert Gee said:
I can't see n the pic, is it actually ARMY marked? Could be any of the letter agencies but I thought that signals intercept would be drones work by now
PS Is there a bot virus that triggers some folks to automatically think of towelie bans no matter the context?View attachment 99502
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It was clearly marked "Army" on the side.
 
I participated in a RED FLAG exercise one year where the Army was invited to provide a GUARDRAIL aircraft to showcase its capability. They sent one but neglected to provide a ground station to process any of the data collected. Without the ground station, the aircraft was pretty much worthless. The airborne crew pretty much fly the airplane and flip switches--no onboard analysis.
 
Is the plane loaded with gear or lots of crew crew space and who knows if these are the one for mice chem trails.
 
Witmo said:
I participated in a RED FLAG exercise one year where the Army was invited to provide a GUARDRAIL aircraft to showcase its capability. They sent one but neglected to provide a ground station to process any of the data collected. Without the ground station, the aircraft was pretty much worthless. The airborne crew pretty much fly the airplane and flip switches--no onboard analysis.
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Restricted but not completely worthless. The aircraft still has intel (COMINT / ELINT) gathering capability, it just can’t be shared with ground units without a tactical ground station / processor. Our aircraft didn’t have full data link capability with the RC-12s but it didn’t matter. They simply relayed to us over the radio on who said what and where it came from.
 
Has no one else seen this.??

Army surveillance aircraft - what does it do?

Here's your sign....:lol::lol:
 
Velocity173 said:
Restricted but not completely worthless. The aircraft still has intel (COMINT / ELINT) gathering capability, it just can’t be shared with ground units without a tactical ground station / processor. Our aircraft didn’t have full data link capability with the RC-12s but it didn’t matter. They simply relayed to us over the radio on who said what and where it came from.
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Last I checked, the flight crew didn't include a linguist so relaying who said what and where it came from becomes problematic. Similarly, ELINT requires an analyst to understand what's been intercepted.
 
Witmo said:
Last I checked, the flight crew didn't include a linguist so relaying who said what and where it came from becomes problematic. Similarly, ELINT requires an analyst to understand what's been intercepted.
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Oh, I was referring to the the information distribution. With no data link, you wouldn’t have received their picture. With no sensor operator or linguist on the ground, well you wouldn't have gotten a verbal relay of their picture either. In that case it would be useless to bring the aircraft to Red Flag. Although RC-12s have used them (sensor / linguist) airborne before, that was long ago and limited use.
 
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One of the oldest jokes among the RC- guys is that crew rest starts when the wheels come up...

Gear- UP
Gameboy- ON
 
RC guys in the Army we’re always always making race tracks logging time…more Air Force than Army by the time they got in the seat…I was offered a transition early in my career where I would have to transfer branches to Military Intelligence…that’s not the case anymore and it was OV-1s but the Quickfix/ Guardrail mission has not changed much…
 
I don't know why the system is manned, unless it's doing a lot more than it did back in the 70's. The tech back then took, I believe, a couple of 19" racks and a dc3. Now, there was a commercial version that weighed about 20 lbs, less antennas, and probably used less than 100 watts. Maybe for the endurance? Or is a business jet cheaper than a similar sized unmanned craft?
 
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