>Quick question for you TJ. News has been showing image >intensifier footage from what would appear to be a GR.7 cockpit >showing Paveway’d up Harriers flying. This part of the OSW >package that went out tonight? If so I thought we were just >tasked to ONW???

Yeah, it was a GR.7. These are flying out of an undisclosed base and have been in action in the Southern No Fly Zone. The RAF Op Telic website has images of them in the Gulf.

Snippet from the following webpage:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2862203.stm

“British Harriers ‘come under fire’

Two British Harriers have come under heavy anti-aircraft fire for the first time since the start of the Iraq crisis, pilots say.
The planes were operating in Iraqi airspace near the Kuwait border when the attack occurred, the airmen said.

The volley of 10 shells exploded just seconds behind the planes as they carried out a night patrol mission over the weekend, it is said.

Oxfordshire-born veteran RAF Harrier pilot Flight Lieutenant Jocky Wilson, 40, said he was “happy to be alive”.

The father-of-three said: “We were flying a regular mission on Saturday night in just a pair and we had passed over an area of known Iraqi military activity and we realised they were shooting at us…..”

TJ

Aaaagh! The BBC (News 24) have just picked up the same story and the same footage as Sky News. They’ll be calling the Tonka fuel tanks MOAB’s next! I give up!

TJ

>Whichever seems like he’d better get a move on about doing it >if he’s going to. Just seen a report on Sky News that troops >have moved into the Kuwaiti demilitarised zone inside 5 miles >from the Iraqi border and that RAF GR4’s have just been seen >with live Stormshadows hanging on them.

Steve,

It was reported that Saudi Arabia would accept him. Idi Amin is there already and has been for many years now. Maybe they can get together for a few games of Tennis? I’m sure Hans Blix would volunteer for umpire duties?!

The “Storm Shadow” story has been running on Sky News all day. It was all down to their defence bod, Francis Tusa, who misidentified a GF Goodrich Raptor recce pod on a GR.4. It all snowballed from there with him being convinced that they were Storm Shadows. It was a very poor piece of reporting and despite e-mailing the Editor they continued to run with this “news scoop.” They were still reporting it 10 hours later! Sky News did the same thing during March 1999 with an F-15 combat-jettisoned fuel tank claiming it was wreckage of a Serb MiG-29. Media numpties!

TJ

RE: Bases in Europe!!

AdOnis,

The following is derived from online sources and should be helpful to you on the Cyprus question. I was based in ESBA back in 1987 and also did some detachments at the retained sites at Mount Olympus and Troodos.

“The British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia comprise those parts of Cyprus which stayed under British jurisdiction and remained British sovereign territory when the 1960 Treaty of Establishment created the independent Republic of Cyprus.

They cover 98 square miles, 47.5 around Akrotiri , the Western Sovereign Base Area (WSBA) and 50.5 around Dhekelia, the Eastern Sovereign Base Area (ESBA). Because they are run as military bases, the Sovereign Base Area Administration (SBAA) reports to the British Ministry of Defence in London rather than the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

From House of Commons questions:

“Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many retained sites in Cyprus were controlled by the United Kingdom under the London and Zurich agreements of 1960; how many of these retained sites have since been handed over to the control of the Cyprus Government; and at how many, and which, locations retained sites have been handed over to the Cyprus Government since the division of the island in 1974.

Mr. Soames: The treaty of establishment 1960 provided for 40 British retained sites in the Republic of Cyprus. They are listed in four schedules which form a part of that treaty, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. Since then 25 complete sites and parts of six sites have been returned. Of these, eight complete sites and parts of one site have been handed back since 1974. These were as follows:

a. at the port of Limassol;
b. north-west of Zyyi (parts of);
c. at Cape Greco;
d. the water supply for the Cape Greco retained site;
e. at Polemidhia;
f. the water supply for the Polemidhia retained site;
g. north of Zyyi;
h. the water supply for the retained site north of Zyyi; i. near Paphos, about mile from the top of Cape Paphos.

Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many retained sites, and at which locations, remain in (a) southern Cyprus governed by the Cyprus Government and (b) northern Cyprus governed by the government of the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus.

Mr. Soames: A total of 15 British-retained sites remain in Cyprus, of which 11 are in the south of the island and four in the north. The sites are:
a. (South)
at Troodos (two sites);
at Mount Olympus;
at Nicosia airfield;
water supply for retained site at Nicosia airfield on the coast, about five miles south of Larnaca;
on the outskirts of Limassol;
water supply for the retained site on the outskirts of Limassol; at Kissousa, including the water source and pipeline
to the Akrotiri sovereign base area;
at Limassol, in Paphos road.
b. (North)
at the port in Famagusta;
in Famagusta (three sites).”

TJ

RE: A bad day !

The image is faked. The picture of the helo operating near Golden Gate is genuine and was taken by the USAF:

http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/HH_60G_Pave_Hawk.html

Whoever faked it reversed the Pave Hawk image and added a Great White also taken from the web. The shark image can be found at the following url:

http://www.snopes2.com/photos/graphics/shark.jpg

TJ
Attachments:

RE: SAM Systems

http://www.mod.uk/index.php3?page=659

“The RAF Police carry out covert surveys of military low flying activity, frequently assisted by a mobile Skyguard air defence radar. This is used to monitor accurately the heights and speeds of military aircraft. The RAF Police and the Skyguard radar are tasked, jointly or separately, by MOD Head Office to areas of the country or specific locations judged to be causing public concern.

Generally, Skyguard deploys to a different location monthly and monitors activity over a four-day period. Flying stations are not given advance notice of Skyguard deployments or the locations chosen.”

Link to photograph of Hunter during Skyguard trials:

http://www.mod.uk/index.php3?page=867

Captured Argentine equipment from the Falklands War is still actively being used to this present day. The RAF has this year put into service an ex-Argentine Puma and mated part of a Chinook airframe to a crashed RAF example and returned this helo to service. My unit, here in the Falklands, back in 1993, had an ex-Argentine vehicle for a number of years still in its camo. This year RAF Germany donated an ex-Argentine utility vehicle to a UK Museum for display. This vehicle had been strafed by a Harrier’s 30mms during the war, later captured and put into service as a squadron utility vehicle in RAF Germany. The ex-Argentine Skyguard/35mm cannon combination was used as part of the air-defence system at RAF Waddington for a number of years until retirement. The Skyguard was then found a new use with the RAF Police and the low-level flying monitoring team. A lot of the captured kit is on display in various units here in the Falklands. They even have a SAM-7 launcher mounted on one of the unit walls! Some of the units have 20mm anti-aircraft guns as “gate-guards”.

TJ