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A US Spy Plane Has Been Flying Circles Over Seattle For Days (thedrive.com)
turkeydance shares Thursday's report from The Drive:
A very unique U.S. Air Force surveillance aircraft has been flying highly defined circles over Seattle and its various suburbs for nine days now... The aircraft, which goes by the callsign "SPUD21" and wears a nondescript flat gray paint job with the only visible markings being a U.S. Air Force serial on its tail, is a CASA CN-235-300 transport aircraft that has been extensively modified... It is covered in a dizzying array of blisters, protrusions, humps and bumps. These include missile approach warning detectors and large fairings on its empennage for buckets of forward-firing decoy flares, as well as both microwave -- the dome antenna behind the wing and flat antenna modification in front of the wing -- and ultra high-frequency satellite communications -- the platter-like antenna behind the dome antenna. A communications intelligence suite also appears to be installed on the aircraft, with the antenna farm on the bottom of its fuselage being a clear indication of such a capability. But what's most interesting is the aircraft's apparent visual intelligence gathering installation...
This particular CN-235, with the serial 96-6042, is one of six that researchers commonly associated with the Air Force's top secret 427th Special Operations Squadron... The 427th occupies the same space with a host of other "black" U.S. military aviation elements, most of which are affiliated to some degree with Joint Special Operations Command and the Intelligence Community... [I]f the military placed the aircraft under civilian control to some degree and with an appropriate legal justification, the U.S. military could possibly fly it in support of a domestic operation or one focused on a foreign suspect or organization operating within the United States... It's also entirely possible, if not probable, that the aircraft could be involved in a realistic training exercise rather than an actual operation... The area could have simply provided a suitable urban area to test existing or new surveillance technologies, too, though this could spark serious privacy concerns if true.
Friday an Air Force Special Operations Command public affairs officer confirmed that the plane was one of theirs, describing its activity as "just a training mission," according to Russia Today.
This particular CN-235, with the serial 96-6042, is one of six that researchers commonly associated with the Air Force's top secret 427th Special Operations Squadron... The 427th occupies the same space with a host of other "black" U.S. military aviation elements, most of which are affiliated to some degree with Joint Special Operations Command and the Intelligence Community... [I]f the military placed the aircraft under civilian control to some degree and with an appropriate legal justification, the U.S. military could possibly fly it in support of a domestic operation or one focused on a foreign suspect or organization operating within the United States... It's also entirely possible, if not probable, that the aircraft could be involved in a realistic training exercise rather than an actual operation... The area could have simply provided a suitable urban area to test existing or new surveillance technologies, too, though this could spark serious privacy concerns if true.
Friday an Air Force Special Operations Command public affairs officer confirmed that the plane was one of theirs, describing its activity as "just a training mission," according to Russia Today.
"According to 'Russia Today'"? Really?
Someone needs to send a drone up there and check it out.
Howe much more unique can it get.
maybe not
This sounds exactly like the kind of equipment you would want overhead in a major combat operation. Both visual and communications intelligence along with the means to detect missiles and possibly defend itself are all capabilities you want during major combat operations.
Why have a drill over a major American City if they aren't trying to spy on Americans? Major cities have a large quantity of communications systems all over the spectrum. Police, Fire, Ambulance, Taxi, and even Amateur radio operate in the ranges of interest. They will be able to receive both local and distant broadcast stations that will change based on position and atmospheric conditions. This is simply an exercise in how to operate the equipment to find and decode various communications. Add a ground component with training signals intentionally generated by the military and this becomes more realistic.
As for privacy concerns, this is very valid and you should remember that no telecommunications network can be completely secure. It is also important to note that any communications intercepts of civilian communications will be concerned with capabilities, not content.
sudo mod me up
Have you ever lived in an occupied country?
flying for a few hours and then landing and then taking off again, for several days straight, I suppose I could buy that. But if you mean it's been in the air for several days straight, then you're wrong.
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from the
FAKE TRUMP
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I know you will be happy to hear that.
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In the 2nd song of that performance, see the laughing when he says, "Am I
original?"
Why worry if you have nothing to hide, Seattle?
Joint Base Lewis-McCord is less than 50 miles from Seattle, as the drone flies - so the city is convenient. Heck, Boeing Field is only about 4 miles away from downtown, if there are problems. Plus Seattle is remote enough from Washington DC and New York (not to mention smaller) that the country is less likely to freak out now that the surveillance drone has been outed.
Not to mention that Seattle is a liberal bastion which the current administration probably wouldn't mind messing with a bit.
#DeleteChrome
A very unique U.S. Air Force surveillance aircraft...
Is it as unique as this other one over here?
Checking out coffee shops, trying to decide which one to go to next.
nt
Perhaps the Air Force is taking advantage of the heavy smoke covering the area for training on techniques for imaging under such circumstances. In actual military use in a shooting war, smoke and dust from combat are likely to make optical observation more difficult. I would assume that on-board tech could enhance this, but it may require real-time tuning by the crew.
The current conditions may provide an excellent opportunity for real-world experience.
Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
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Find an RT article highly critical of Putin.
Now, find a mainstream US news article highly critical of Trump.
Guess which one is easier?
Crap, I'll find you a dozen Fox News pieces criticizing Trump.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Call Muller
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
Gray? An airforce plane painted gray?
Something's up here.
Two words - "Sanctuary City"...
It's going to be fun to see how long Seattle can hold out when its Federal funding is cut off. Do they really think the Supreme Court of the US
is going to tell them it's ok to defy the laws they don't like ? Good luck with that.
What these SJW children want to call "sanctuary" is a haven for people who are **breaking the law**. You can't cherry pick laws you like and disregard laws you don't like, and some people are obviously bent on learning this the hard way.
To all you SJW fucktards : I don't care what you "think" or what you have to say. So save your silly childish ivory tower coffee shop idiocy for the Birkenstock-wearing chick with the hairy legs you've been trying to bang for the last year even though she knows you are too effeminate for her taste.
...maybe testing capabilities, just in case something is sent over from North Korea?
Doesn't Boeing, a Major US Aerospace contractor has a Big Factory and other research facilities in Seattle?
Perhaps this training excersice over this particular city has something to do with something the guys in the Lab what to measure first hand? As in Reverse-Engineer-hand?
Because the CASA CN-235-300 is a joint development of Spain (CASA) and Indonesia (IPTN)
Just saying...
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
bit Trump didn't stop this so that is his fault.
I thought this might be some sort of drone or something capable of flying for days at a time. Instead it's just some regular stupid manned aircraft performing a few separate flights every day. Oh, ah! Pffft... Come live where I do, there are Raptors flying overhead every day. Big deal. They're annoyingly loud compared to F-15's but not as bad as that stupid F-117, fuck I hated those loud bastards!
This site is so sad now.
HeT! No
Look on the bright side, at least it isn't another goddamn BetaNews submission!
Seriously, does /anyone/ do research anymore?
I simply googled "Drone" and "Seattle", and the Seattle Times came up first and front row explaining that Trump is going to be there for golf. And here you all are speculating about secret test missions and North Korea?
Has everybody gone insane?
Here's one. I'll talk about Matt Daemon. He is was found in Boston this weekend. Perhaps he stealing classified military projects from MIT for the drone that's flying in Seattle.
The heavy smoke is because of the Republicans. They just keep pushing global warming which causes forest fires. There weren't forest fires before their kind made it so hot that we are all now dying.
As long as we're playing a guessing game, I say something like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Just wait 20 years for it to be added to the list.
send a drone up there equipped with a laserpointer, confetti and glitter chaffe, maybe a sand-particle accelerator...
and disguising them as jets?
In my best Artie Johnson impression, "very interesting."
Obviously, the citizens of Seattle have discovered nude rooftop sunbathing in this heat wave. And the CIA has discovered that the effectiveness of training for video surveillance missions is greatly enhanced with attractive targets. It's always about PORN!
Its funny that the only way we can find out whats actually going on in the US is to read Russian news.
My side won, and your side LOST.
By "my side" do you mean Russia? Because this really isn't the victory US Republicans should have hoped for.
Chemtrails. Definitely chemtrails.
Hmmmm ... Fake News'? Looks like Fake Houses at that location ... what are they trying to hide?
http://www.seattletimes.com/bu...
a less-sophsticated effort was conducted south of Boston a few years ago. The aircraft was a Cessna-like plane with little to make it appear special, but its routes were so continuous that it attracted attention. Finally, the local authorities said it was collective data pertaining to law enforcement, and no other details. It was later explained more fully, and I think it was terror-related, but frankly I've forgotten the details.
Can anyone nail this down and refresh my memory? A casual Google query wasn't easy to compose, apparently
tone
USAF has used SWIR (Short Wave Infra-Red) sensors for a long time already.
Trump has obviously decided that the Russians are going to spy on us no matter what we do, and it is best to make some money on it. It's being leased to the Russians.
The Blue Angles were also in Seattle this weekend for an air show, along with the week prior for practice. Any coincidence here?
One possibility is that they were testing their tracking of F16s at lower altitudes like what the Blue Angles fly at.
Boeing Field is where a lot of mods for military plane are done. Operational flights do not take place from Boeing Field. Most likly what's going on is the plane is undergoing mods and they are testing these mods in the local area.
If this were an operational flight, more likly the plane would be down at McChord Field, where I work. We do have the 22 Special Forces here at McChord, but spy planes, usually the big 135 mods, fly in and out of here all the time. Sometimes they stay a few days, who knows what they are up to.
It's interesting that someone spotted this, but the whole "spying on Seattle" thing is a joke. That's not what's happening.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
That was my first thought and the summary has " These include missile approach warning detectors ".
Seattle supposedly came within range as of NK's previous missile test. The most recent one is thought to cover the whole of N.America.
Then there was also the news headline last week of "We're not your enemy," by Rex Tillerson
The 427th is about as "secretive" as the 413th out of Eglin, which flies their Special Operations aircraft day in and day out over Eglin. If you've ever been to Destin you've seen their stuff. It's a test squadron. They're testing. This isn't new, exciting, or unique.
We can't wait for Trump's next tweet!
SWIR is not a magic bullet. It has a very limited ability to see through particulate matter (ie: smoke) because it scatters.
You know, with some perfectly harmless Bacillus globigii, or Serratia marcescens.
Or whatever the current iterations of those two completely harmless bioweapons are.
But, I jest, of course. The US government would never do that to its own citizens.
Maybe the plane moves around to try catch satellite signals, as if looking for spies communicating from Seattle to some orbital satellite? :)
Reminds me - one of the salesman at a place I used to work described one of our products as "almost totally unique" :/
Critical of her? Bullshit. CNN was her HQ.
Feminism at its pure form us about establishing right for women, and when right for men are stronger, to strive for an equality. But in its pure form feminism does not ask for right for men to be equal when the right for women are stronger, in other word it does work only in one direction, and is not about gender equality, but solely about women's right. Now many major feminist long recognized that in such form it could lead to problems, or they are simply proponent for gender equality, recognize that there are situation where men right are lower (a well known example are family courts), but this is not feminism at its core and in fact some feminist are very charicatural mirror of chauvinist men and want more right for women then men - thankfully a shrill minority but they do exists . That is why i long stopped being feminist and i am now a gender equlitarian : Rights wrong where they are , no matter the gender.
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The US military had plenty of that when Iraq lit Kuwait's oil fields on fire.
Its Seafair weekend. LOTS of aircraft shows (including the Blue Angels), hydro racing, and a ton of other events.
All of it adds up to LOTS of radar targets and a bodacious quantity of radio traffic with all of the spectators and their FRS/GMRS or licensed amateur radios. Most of the area repeaters have gotten a serious workout this weekend..
I actually believe training mission.
"SPUD21", eh?
Let me guess... it's carrying weapons of MASH destruction? ...
meh, it's okay, I'll see myself out.
Anyway, according to this https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-u-s-air-forces-most-secretive-squadron-c6bacc520562
Arguably the most secretive flying squadron in the whole U.S. Air Force owns a bunch of small Cessnas and medium-size transports that look pretty much exactly like civilian aircraft.
But the 427th Special Operations Squadron’s mission is anything but mundane.
...
The CN235, for one, “is believed to be used to insert [Special Forces] personnel at small airfields for covert counter-insurgency operations,” according to the Spyflight forum.
So don't worry guys, they aren't spying on you, they just want to deploy Special Forces in your neighborhood.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
. . . .sides here. The objective fact is that Donald Trump is the current President of the United States. No matter whether you love him or loathe him.
Please try arguing your points rationally, without flinging epithets.
Those of us who are thoroughly tired of BOTH sides demonizing each other would appreciate it. . . . .
Thank you. . . .
. . . the rest of us
Sheesh, any time someone writes "begs the question" the peoples they go nuts, but write "very unique" and nobody bats an eye?
So now the use training missions to spy on US Citizens?
They are flying a a hi tech spy plane over a major US population center for training? Sounds questionable in it's legality.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
"A very unique..."
Tell me how that works again?
Too blatant, young Vader. Modify the part about forest fires not existing prior to something more believable like "forest fires have been increasing due to Republican evisceration of environmental protections!" for maximum trolling potential. Note the use of the word "evisceration", which sounds implies violence. A common tactic when vilifying.
Big, lumpy, has eyes on it, a little grey though, but a potato nonetheless.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Resinated optics can be a bitch...
Your compassion is remarkable!
If the Russians say its Ok then surely Trump must have approved it.
/s
Anyone perhaps notice that the Blue Angels and hydro plane races were in town? Just trying to get a decent view I suspect since there are *no* parking spaces and the major freeway is shutdown while the Blue Angels are flying around... :)
Dude, we are not just in the building, but we're in the skies.
Note the Seattle and King County councils and police always refer to their own surveillance. The feds, state, ports are all exempt and do in fact spy on you.
Dirty little secret we tend not to admit.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
It looks to be coming from Oak Harbor Base up on Whidbey Island. It also may be in support of Seafair which was happening last week in Seattle, in which there are a lot of military aircraft flying low to the ground, and they may have needed a communications relay.
Maybe Mr. Bezos should have thought more carefully about annoying the Commander in Chief...
ditto
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
If the fake news is real, and the real news is fake - which real fake news should I reference as part of a potential upcoming reality check?