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Thread: Aircraft Information

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    Default Aircraft Information

    Since the outbreak of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I have been watching the Flight Radar 24 website. If you are not familiar with it, its here . You can see more with an account, but still see plenty without one.

    I have seen basically almost every military aircraft possible in the last month, mainly C-17 Globemaster's, which both the US and UK have a lot of, but also fighter jets and government jets.

    Some of it has amazed me, as in why they continue to fly while being identified by anyone with the internet. Such as with an American Government aircraft, showing all identifying serial numbers etc, of which there are only a total of 4, flying near the Polish/Ukraine border. And that's after they announce it in the news !

    Now lets say the Russians, (or even the Ukrainians wanting the world to think Russia did it) decided to deploy some people in Poland armed with surface to air missiles. We have seen what happened when the Russians accidently shot down a passenger plane in Ukraine already.

    Anyway, thats one thing. But today, another.

    I was looking at a US C-17 Globemaster that was in Hawaii and noticed it was not moving and parked. I zoomed in for a look and was surprised at the map quality. I thought WOW.......if you could tilt the map, you could get all the markings off the planes. And we are talking about a dozen c-17's.

    Well, all I can sat is f u c k me dead. Using Google Earth, I can actually tilt the planes and read their serial numbers. And there are some very interesting planes there.


    An overall view at what I am looking at


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    The arrows above are showing US Military Transports.

    Here is a closer look at one.



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    But what of those 2 Stars on your original picture Admin ?

    Here is a look at the one of the right near the diagonal runways.


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    Wow, what is at the other star you ask, the one on the left ?


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    Google Earth/Maps isn't real-time imaging, so what you see is photos that can be up-to several years old.

    Many military/government/law enforcement aircraft do block ADSB transponder info (or delay it significantly) but as you say, it is surprising what can be seen in real time.

    I upload to FR24 from an ADSB receiver/decoder.
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    The plane above appears to be a V-25. I would need to double check of course, but I doubt any other planes apart from Airforce One have that livery on them.
    Wikipedia can tell you about it.


    As you can see, there are only a couple and I have seen them numerous times over the last 2 weeks going back and forwards over Poland. I have checked their serial numbers and they certainly correspond to those planes.

    To me, there is an accident waiting to happen.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mtv View Post
    Google Earth/Maps isn't real-time imaging, so what you see is photos that can be up-to several years old.
    Yep, I completely understand that. But given the average American transporter/tanker and even Government jets are up to 60 years old, it's not like they change them around too often.
    I am sure many would be surprised to learn the age of the planes.

    Many military/government/law enforcement aircraft do block ADSB transponder info (or delay it significantly) but as you say, it is surprising what can be seen in real time.

    I upload to FR24 from an ADSB receiver/decoder.
    For sure, at times they simply disappear off the screen. But there is some pretty ridiculous stuff going on in my opinion. For example, Rzeszow Airport in Poland is being used by the US 82nd Airbourne (again, should that be in the news ?) and even Blackhawk helicopters appear there on a daily basis as well as military planes from many European Governments. Biden and Harris even announce they are going there.....it's only 113 km to the Ukraine border.

    And who is to say if Putin does go particularly mental one day and decide that Poland is assisting Ukraine too much that he decides to send a particularly fast rocket in to it ? I think people underestimate nutcases, Hitler was one and he would have done it for sure. Who is to say Putin wont ?

    I just dont see the point of putting up a big sign saying HERE WE ARE !

    I will be lazy and cut and paste, but this from last week :

    Waves of Russian missiles pounded a military training base close to Ukraine’s western border with NATO member Poland, killing 35 people. The strike followed Russian threats to target foreign weapon shipments that are helping Ukrainian fighters defend their country against Russia's grinding invasion.

    More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the sprawling training facility that is less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the closest border point with Poland, according to the governor of Ukraine’s western Lviv region. Poland is a key location for routing Western military aid to Ukraine.

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    But apart from the US telling everyone where they are should they want to send a missile to Poland, I really cant understand why the US Government allows Google to allow photographs that 1. Show where all the military hardware is parked, and 2. Even worse, allow anyone to identify exact planes. It's not hard to guess that every foreign government that doesn't like the US has a team of people that sit on computers all day looking at what are now ridiculously high definition maps.

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    This one makes the job so much easier than guessing what planes may drop in on occasion. It's written in english for them.

    C-17 Globemaster transports -
    KC -10 Aerial Refuellers -
    KC - 135 Stratotankers -



    I wonder if Russia and China provide the same service. At a guess I would say they are definitely not as open with providing the sort of information the US does.

    I might have a look around the UK and Western Europe to see if they are accommodating. I did see a pair of British Eurofighters blasting over Gallipoli in Turkey last week, and British C-17's are almost as common as American ones, so it will be interesting to see.
    It's interesting that not all Google Earth imaging is as sharp as that on Hawaii.

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    I am sure Russia and China have the same service but not open for general population.
    And those Google Earth pics are definitely not current. March in this area is still pretty cool with snow everywhere - not to be seen in the google earth photos. I'd say the photos were taken around Summer time there.
    It said photos taken today from satellites (I am sure there are few of them in space above Ukraine) allow people to read newspaper help by someone on the ground.

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    no snow, it's too warm.

    Interesting pics. I'm sure the US Gov isn't going to give away what's going on in real time.
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    Quote Originally Posted by LeroyPatrol View Post
    no snow, it's too warm.
    If you were making a joke, this was not the right spot!
    The civilian people in some parts of Ukraine(those who are still alive) are melting snow to get water to drink, while here many here are just having too much water with parts of our country hardly looking better than some bombed areas in Ukraine and right now with repeated 'attacks'.
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    with the Hawaii photos - i know that the US keep some planes on standby 24/7 in case there is ever a Pearl Harbour style attack on the island again.

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    Time to play... "game theory".
    Being able to see aircraft movement can be a strategic disadvantage.

    Lets try a simpler example. I'm sure most of you know how to play poker.
    I'm so good at playing poker that I can play my hand open so that you can see all my cards while I can't see yours.
    And I'm confident that despite what you think is a major disadvantage I can still beat you.

    This kind of behaviour tells you that I am extremely confident and good at playing poker and you're not. Because you know I'm not bluffing. But I can still tell when you are.
    This turns the game into nothing but how well you can lie, the cards are just dumb luck. I can't control when you have a better hand, but I can easily determine when you know you can win and when you know you cannot. Any attempt you make to bluff will cost you so much more than the 50:50 odds you thought you had.

    So despite that amazing advantage you thought you had, you still end up losing.
    How bad do you think you are at lying and bluffing?
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    I think the idea with having those military aircraft visible is two-fold.

    First, it’s a show of strength. It’s a sign to the world that the US has military aircraft a bees dick away from being able to throw some missiles towards Putin, if a need arose.

    Secondly, and likely more importantly, is that these visible aircraft help conceal the ones they don’t want you to see. It’s almost a certainty that the US is conducting covert military operations in either the Ukraine or Russia (or both), and what better way to hide those operations than in plain sight.

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    That's it Mr Ramjet. Make everything easy for your enemy until you want it to be hard for them.
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