The RAF has a very basic annual fitness test which was introduced in 1994. The most intense part (if you can call it that) of it is the ‘Bleep Test’. This is an aerobic test in which you run 20-metre shuttles at an increasing pace governed by an audio sound track. The RAF Regiment has added tests on top of this with the RAF Regiment Battle Fitness Test and RAF Regiment Combat Fitness Test. As you will be classed as a ground support trade then you won’t have to officially pass the RAF Regiment tests or even attempt them. The only requirement should be the basic RAF Fitness Test which consists of the shuttle run ‘Bleep Test’ followed by a series of press-ups and sit-ups. The standards are set by age brackets and gender. At 39 I have to reach 7.2 on the Bleep Test and complete 11 press-ups and 23 sit-ups. Obviously being a youngster you have to meet higher standards! Every couple of years the standards are raised slightly. The Navy has introduced a comparable fitness test and the Army one is to a much higher standard and is quite intense.

You can download the 20 metre ‘Bleep Test’ at the following link:

http://www.uswebfoundry.com/sitemap.html

‘Bleep Test'(right click on it and save as) transfer it to a CD or tape and follow it on either a boogie box or personal audio system.

Bleep Test explained (This one has the conversion chart)

http://www.edinburgh-refs.co.uk/ERRSFitnessTests.asp

TJ

Here is a recent and fairly interesting report on the discovered mobiles on the CIA website. (Keep an ear out for rotor-blade noise – Black helos and all that!)

http://www.cia.gov/

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/iraqi_mobile_plants/index.html

No doubt it won’t be long before the conspiracy theory groups start finding / Photo Shopping Wallmart stickers on some of the equipment / pipes shown in some of the images!

Of note in the CIA webpage is what Iraqi officials stated about the purpose of the mobiles.

TJ

Arthur, this should amuse you too. From our old friend Venik on the Iraqi Foxbat C. Will he never learn?!!

http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=3967&lang=en

Venik wrote:

“The story with the MiG-25 found by the Australians has raised a number of questions. The aircraft pictured on the photos released by the Australian military is a MiG-25PU (NATO: ‘Foxbat-C’) – a two-seat trainer aircraft. Iraq was not known to have any of these planes. The “PU” stands for “Perekhvatchik Uchebnyj” or Interceptor-Trainer. In addition to the trainer role the MiG-25PU was also designed to carry a cruise missile. No MiG-25PUs were ever sold to Iraq, which purchased only 20 MiG-25s – 12 export-version MiG-25PD improved interceptors and 8 MiG-25RB (reconnaissance/bomber) following Soviet VVS pilot Belenko’s defection to Japan aboard his MiG-25 and the resulting lifting of Soviet export restrictions on this type. The only country other than Russia known to operate the “PU” model is India and it is believed that Syria also has this aircraft. The Australian military says that the MiG-25 they found was one of 51 MiG planes discovered. According to the Australians, this particular MiG-25 was found at some “major airbase in western Iraq” at an undisclosed location.

The problem is there are no major Iraqi AF airbases in the western part of the country. The only exception (and it’s quite a stretch to call this a major airbase) is the airbase near Ardamah located not far from the Baghdad-Jordan highway going through Ar Ramadi and Ar Rutbah. All of Iraq’s major air bases are located in the eastern part of the country along the border with Iran (for obvious reasons). Iraq’s six operational single-seat MiG-25Ps belong to the 96th Squadron and are based at Al Quadisiya airbase commanded by Gen. Ismail Al Sheiks and the Air Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Amer Shaheen. The MiG-21 combat/training wing is located at the same airbase and commanded by Brig. Mohamed Mansour. The Al Quadisiya airbase is located about 200 km south of Baghdad between An Najaf and An Nassiriyah along the Euphrates River – territory occupied by the coalition forces weeks ago, according to Pentagon. So, once again, there is what seems to be a major event in this war – 51 MiGs supposedly found – and once again there are more questions than answers. Why don’t we see more of the captured Iraqi planes? Why weren’t the planes destroyed during the bombing campaign? Why the only public photo of a captured Iraqi MiG is that of a type Iraq did not have? Where was the photo taken and why is it such a secret?

Finally the Australian SAS has revealed the name of the airbase it occupies: the al-Asad. A 150-strong Australian SAS force claimed to have found and captured practically the entire Iraqi Air Force – “57 Soviet-made MiGs, helicopters, anti-aircraft batteries, helicopters and 7.9 million kilograms of munitions and ordnance” [ “SAS reveal the war they fought”, by Tom Allard, with the 1st SAS regiment in Iraq, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 24, 2003]. Naturally and as usual all of this equipment is intact and “will form the basis of the ‘free Iraq air force’” [Tom Allard]. How convenient. It’s worth mentioning that the al-Asad airbase is a small patch of paved sand located on the edge of the Syrian Desert just west of the Hawijat Arban railroad station near the Euphrates. At best this is a support airfield with a few small service buildings and no significant aircraft storage facilities. 57 MiGs and 7.9 million kilograms of ammo? Convenient indeed!”

Inspired by Venik’s ramblings some of the forum participants comments are hilarious:

“If you examine the photograph depicted in the link below, there are two flaws with the image of the Iraqi flag on the tail of the aircraft. (1.) The angle of the tail made it difficult for the Adobe Photoshop trickster to position the image correctly. Examine the lower edge of the flag (black stripe) – it does not line up correctly with the rivets below, which form the true horizontal line. (2.) The flag image is surrounded by speckles, caused by pasting an image of different resolution onto the background, I believe. Look at the rest of the photo. It is clear and concise, with no speckles (other than possibly where the English text (!) appears on the plane).”

“The flag appears like a sticker rather than painted one, the adobe editor was smart enough to cut the flag from a old iraqi equipment but failed to blend it with the rusted tail surface. What they are trying to achieve by showing this?, have they declared MIG25 as part of WMD? I guess the adobe editor must be trying to cut & paste a WMD equipment inside… MIG25 can be used as VX sparying machine??? huh…. “

“all the sas men in the MiG pictures have clean clothes, even the ones running around in the ‘village’ or whatever it was, webbing and equipment is dirty and worn, as you would expect from soldiers who excersise regularly, but the clothes don’t even have dirty knees or elbows, compare with photos of GIs in baghdad who one would assume had a more comfortable trip than a sas man crawling around behind enemy territory. once again it could mean nothing, who knows maybe the australian sas look so much like iraqis that they don’t need to hide and duck and crawl from cover to cover, or maybe they can only side step, like the marine from doom… “

“There are plenty of identifiable flowers and possibly unique palm tree species on that photo of the Mig-25. Somebody ought to be able to figue out if they grow in Iraq. If they do, noone any the wiser. But what of they don’t? “

Save us from the loons!!!!!

TJ

Alex wrote:

“TJ hate to sound paranoid but the question that I have to ask is can we trust what we see? ………. “

Alex, yes you do sound very paranoid! If they wanted to plant evidence then they would have done it a long time ago and in the first couple of weeks. Imagine a scenario of “Bush or Blair’s minions” planting a couple of ex-Taliban SCUD and their TELs into western Iraq. Imagine “Bush or Blair’s minions” planting stockpiles of agent filled 155mm shells alongside Iraqi M109 SP howitzers. Imagine media access after the “finds” and there you have Hussein’s regime busted. Ludicrous I know, but it is incredible how much individuals / groups belive that anything found must have been planted.

Surfing the web last week I came across one website that simply beggars belief. If the rest of the stories aren’t ludicrous enough this one caught my eye. Most people have seen the images / video of the Iraqi Foxbat C in Iraq near Al Asad. This website / group actually believes:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steveseymour/subliminalsuggestion/oil2.html

“On a lighter note, it seems that US Central Command in Qatar lied to us yesterday, which I feel sure will come as an enormous surprise to everyone! Apparently in an attempt to deflect attention away from the very real Mosul to Haifa pipeline that the SAS has been inadvertently protecting for Israel, the PR folk hastily rushed out some really pretty pictures which, they claimed, showed the SAS “guarding captured Iraqi aircraft at a secret airfield west of Baghdad”.
What these [unidentifiable] hooded men are guarding is a very rare Russian aircraft known as the Mig 25-PU. Known generically to the world as the Mig 25 “Foxbat”, this version is a two-seat interceptor trainer produced in numbers so small that every aviation buff in the world knows where they all are. Iraq had never bought any Mig 25-PUs, has not borrowed or been given any Mig 25-PUs, so this official picture from US Central Command cannot have been shot in Iraq. It really is that simple…
The headgear worn by these heroes is mildly interesting, because it is very similar if not identical to that worn by Russian special forces, normally but not always in Russia. The colors on the aircraft indicate that is most likely one belonging to Tajikistan, where certain units of the SAS [hush my mouth…] went on exercise a year or two ago. Remember Exercise “Enduring Freedom”?
Someone really should have a quiet word with US Central Command. If you know their telephone number, call and tell them that if they really want to fool the western public, their PR folk really should use a picture of an aircraft that most people will actually believe is [or can be] in Iraq. Try to stick to the ubiquitous Mig 21. Almost everyone in the Middle East has a few of these, including Saddam…”

TJ

Ink wrote:

“Yes, thats right, none of the things we were told were true. “

The intel on the mobile labs played out to be correct. Although clean these labs were discovered. The Iraqi’s were not allowed to have these in their possession and obviously never declared them. The SIGINT tape played at the UN had commanders discussing / referring to vehicles that they didn’t want inspection teams to find. It appears likely that the labs discovered were those vehicles discussed.

TJ

These links should help you out:

http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/help.html

If you are using Outlook Express then this link should help.

Outlook Express

http://www.freeuk.com/support/newsgroups_outlook.php

If you are using a different browser then just do a web search or use the help on whichever system you currently have. It was the case in the past that some ISP don’t support specific newsgroups. Failing that you can register straight from the first link and post direct onto the groups.

TJ

Kev35 wrote:

“Sadly no. I don’t think that’s allowed in the UK under the SALT treaty.”

SALT covered strategic arms. Aircraft wise this was strategic bombers. You are possibly thinking of the CFE Treaty (Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty). The Buccaneer was covered by CFE, but that doesn’t stop examples being considered to be made airworthy in private hands. In similar fashion if the Vulcan was returned to flying status it wouldn’t violate any of the treaties and warrant an inspection. NASA B-52s (B and H models)warrant an inspection under START to see that they are not nuclear capable.

http://www.osce.org/docs/english/1990-1999/cfe/cfetreate.htm

TJ

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3028721.stm

“Russia tests its heavy bombers

Tu-95: Workhorse of Russia’s bomber fleet
Heavy Russian bombers which challenged Nato military planners during the Cold War have taken to the air again to strike targets with cruise missiles in the Indian Ocean.

Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers flew the 12-hour round mission from southern Russia on Wednesday in the first such exercise since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian authorities said.

The Tu-95s released two cruise missiles which successfully found their targets before returning to base, Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov said in Moscow.

News of the exercise, which was part of joint Russo-Indian naval games, came as US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Moscow and the Russian Parliament ratified a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US.

This is what we exist for

Mikhail Shishkin
Tu-160 commander
Air crews who spoke to Russia TV at their base in Saratov ahead of the mission said they were happy to be back flying full missions again after years of uncertainty.

The long-range bombers did not fly at all between 1992 and 1998, its correspondent said.

“The crews have to demonstrate that they can perform combat tasks – this is what we exist for,” said Mikhail Shishkin, commander of one of the two Tu-160s which, along with four Tu-95s performed the mission.

Pilots said they had long been in training for the mission but only received their orders on the last day before take-off.

Vajpayee visit

The naval exercises in the Indian Ocean also coincided with a visit to Moscow by Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha.

Apart from talks with Mr Powell, the Indian minister met Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to discuss trade and economic relations.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is expected to visit Russia shortly to attend celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told supporters.

World leaders including US President George W Bush are due to attend the lavish festivities there at the end of the month. “

Guess the nation that let the Strategic Aviation out into the Indian Ocean?

TJ