Army surveillance aircraft - what does it do?

Lndwarrior

Lndwarrior

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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?20210825_121406.jpg
 
Is that the Beechcraft C12 Huron, based on the B200 Super King Air, fitted as a Guardrail?
 
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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Looks like one of these. But whose the dude in the blue shirt? He got to get closer than you. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_RC-12_Guardrail
 
Had a couple of those flying out of here all last week. You should see the C-130 version. Looks like a porcupine
 
Pretty sure it listens to your thoughts.
 
I'd think they would work in pairs. A friend of mine was a squadron commander for the AF/spook version in Vietnam. They listen to radio transmissions, and do DF.
 
I worked with these guys in a few different countries/regions and I've seen what they can do.

Not sure if that is a -12N or a newer version. Their mission has changed quite a few times since the original Guardrail/Common Sensor setup, but it still does some amazing stuff.
 
cell phone and text interdiction......basically tracking your data foot print.
 
SCCutler said:
Do the Taliban have some now?
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If they do I doubt they know how to fly it. Even if they can fly it I bet they can't work the gizmos. And even if they could work the gizmos good luck getting spare parts. I'd worry that they'd sell the things to China but I bet China stole the plans from Boeing years ago.
 
steingar said:
If they do I doubt they know how to fly it. Even if they can fly it I bet they can't work the gizmos. And even if they could work the gizmos good luck getting spare parts. I'd worry that they'd sell the things to China but I bet China stole the plans from Boeing years ago.
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That's the real problem with all of that equipment that the Taliban got ahold of. The Taliban probably lack the ability to do the upkeep on the more sensitive stuff but it will find it's way into the hands of the Chinese or Iranians. Although like you said the Chinese have been stealing tech for decades.
 
steingar said:
If they do I doubt they know how to fly it. Even if they can fly it I bet they can't work the gizmos. And even if they could work the gizmos good luck getting spare parts. I'd worry that they'd sell the things to China but I bet China stole the plans from Boeing years ago.
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One fallout of the Hunan Island EP-3E Incident was a significant redesign of the gear to ensure an easy destruct/disable process in all our platforms. I'm not too concerned about the loss.
 
A friend of mine used to fly them. Fancy W5 and all... He now works a a contractor teaching the kids how to fly them and the newest version which is not a King Air. I'll leave it at that.
 
But that stuff? So the military can't spy on US citizens, so they must be a different org.
 
steingar said:
If they do I doubt they know how to fly it. Even if they can fly it I bet they can't work the gizmos. And even if they could work the gizmos good luck getting spare parts. I'd worry that they'd sell the things to China but I bet China stole the plans from Boeing years ago.
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When did Boeing start making King Air's?
 
The Taliban may have them, but can they fly them? Is there any credible data that says the Taliban has the capability of using the captured aircraft? I know in Vietnam, there was limited skills until the Russians and to a lesser extent the Chinese could train pilots. Second, I thought for foreign exports, we never exported the current generation, usually at least 1-2 generations behind what we have. Anyone know for sure?
 
The AAF never used RC-12s so the Taliban never got them. Only ISR that the AAF had were the PC-12NGs and there isn’t any evidence so far that they were left behind.

Most of the aircraft are inoperable and in the case of the Black Hawks, all the defensive countermeasures have been removed. Last time the Taliban had a credible Air Force was 2001…right before we wiped it out. We could easily do that again if necessary.
 
Velocity173 said:
The AAF never used RC-12s so the Taliban never got them. Only ISR that the AAF had were the PC-12NGs and there isn’t any evidence so far that they were left behind.

Most of the aircraft are inoperable and in the case of the Black Hawks, all the defensive countermeasures have been removed. Last time the Taliban had a credible Air Force was 2001…right before we wiped it out. We could easily do that again if necessary.
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Just a guess. Once the Westerners are out, there will be a no-fly zone declared over the whateverthehell valley the resistance is holding. And we'll send AC-130's and some other hardware to break as many of the Taliban's toys as we can easily track down.
 
kyleb said:
Just a guess. Once the Westerners are out, there will be a no-fly zone declared over the whateverthehell valley the resistance is holding. And we'll send AC-130's and some other hardware to break as many of the Taliban's toys as we can easily track down.
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That really reassuring you know … first we end up paying billions to purchase this stuff and now we have to spend millions to destroy it.
I can’t help it but think that people behind this and similar debacles are just plain f**** stupid and incompetent , all of them , Republican and Democrat, uniformed generals and various pen pushers , all of them.
 
Warmi said:
That really reassuring you know … first we end up paying billions to purchase this stuff and now we have to spend millions to destroy it.
I can’t help it but think that people behind this and similar debacles are just plain f**** stupid and incompetent , all of them , Republican and Democrat, uniformed generals and various pen pushers , all of them.
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Good old war machine. Ensures that those Senators and Reps get renewals on their military spending efforts to appease the lobbyists greasing their palms. Military industrial complex strikes again!
 
I don't watch the news very often, on purpose. But did we lose Salinas CA, too? That plane looks pretty safe on the ground to me.
 
kyleb said:
Just a guess. Once the Westerners are out, there will be a no-fly zone declared over the whateverthehell valley the resistance is holding. And we'll send AC-130's and some other hardware to break as many of the Taliban's toys as we can easily track down.
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Well… that might be something someone competent might do, but the current situation seems to indicate a lack of such people in the decision making chain. ::shrug::


Plus… it’s not a resistance any more, and they’re not holed up in a valley, they essentially have the whole country. It is, as we used to say, a target rich environment, but only if you’re shooting.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Good old war machine. Ensures that those Senators and Reps get renewals on their military spending efforts to appease the lobbyists greasing their palms. Military industrial complex strikes again!
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Exactly like this new meme going around…

It took 20 years ,trillions of dollars, thousands of lives and 4 US presidents to replace Taliban with Taliban.
 
DaleB said:
Plus… it’s not a resistance any more, and they’re not holed up in a valley, they essentially have the whole country. It is, as we used to say, a target rich environment, but only if you’re shooting.
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Actually, there is a decent geographical area that is resisting the Taliban. The Panjshir valley, IIRC. A different ethnic group with holdovers from the Northern Alliance, which stood against the Taliban. I'm thinking we will find a way to support them and even the odds a bit. If we're not there, we might as well support someone there making things difficult for the Taliban.
 
Warmi said:
Exactly like this new meme going around…

It took 20 years ,trillions of dollars, thousands of lives and 4 US presidents to replace Taliban with Taliban.
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Only fair, I suppose, since we pretty much put them there in the first place to replace the Russians.
kyleb said:
Actually, there is a decent geographical area that is resisting the Taliban. The Panjshir valley, IIRC. A different ethnic group with holdovers from the Northern Alliance, which stood against the Taliban. I'm thinking we will find a way to support them and even the odds a bit. If we're not there, we might as well support someone there making things difficult for the Taliban.
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Probably not the valley full of resistance that you were talking about using as a shooting gallery though, right? Or did I misunderstand?

Sorry. Way way off the path on this one, I’ll shut up now and await the ban hammer.
 
DaleB said:
Probably not the valley full of resistance that you were talking about using as a shooting gallery though, right? Or did I misunderstand?
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My intent was to suggest that we would create a no-fly to protect that valley, but target the Taliban in the meantime to attrit their toys and give the folks in the valley (and elsewhere) a better chance of slugging it out with the Taliban.
 
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?BDC.jpg
 
kyleb said:
My intent was to suggest that we would create a no-fly to protect that valley, but target the Taliban in the meantime to attrit their toys and give the folks in the valley (and elsewhere) a better chance of slugging it out with the Taliban.
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OK, I get that. I'm not really clear about why a person would think it might work now when it hasn't done much good in the past several decades.
 
kyleb said:
My intent was to suggest that we would create a no-fly to protect that valley, but target the Taliban in the meantime to attrit their toys and give the folks in the valley (and elsewhere) a better chance of slugging it out with the Taliban.
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I have heard the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud) is helping organize the effort you are describing in the Panshir valley.

As far as a no fly zone and widespread weapons free areas, I think this will be highly unlikely. The no fly zones over Iraq after WW Gulf War 1 were flown out of Kuwait for the southern no fly zone and Turkey for the northern one. That was right next door. My understanding is Pakistan will not allow basing options going forward and I question if they will keep the airway we’ve used for the past 20 years open to military ops. If they do keep it open then the effort of flying tankers, fighters and gunships in country from the gulf states will dwarf the effort it took when everything but the tankers were in country. “Over the horizon capability” sounds cool, but not going to happen in this case.
 
Arm3 said:
That was right next door. My understanding is Pakistan will not allow basing options going forward and I question if they will keep the airway we’ve used for the past 20 years open to military ops.
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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.
 
kyleb said:
Just a guess. Once the Westerners are out, there will be a no-fly zone declared over the whateverthehell valley the resistance is holding. And we'll send AC-130's and some other hardware to break as many of the Taliban's toys as we can easily track down.
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I hope not. IMO, now that we have paid this enormous price, let’s stay the heck out of the Middle East. Keep our military aircraft protecting US citizens at home. I really don’t appreciate paying for these things.
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
I hope not. IMO, now that we have paid this enormous price, let’s stay the heck out of the Middle East. Keep our military aircraft protecting US citizens at home. I really don’t appreciate paying for these things.
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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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