• febra@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This has to be a bluff. That many military planes with their transponders on. I think they’re just trying to send a message.

      • hoch@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Nah, that exercise only involves a handful of KC-135s. We’re seeing 30+ KC-46 Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotankers being strategically redeployed. This is something else.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        We were also running transponders on tankers even when they were refueling aircraft around Ukraine (albeit in friendly airspace).

        The refuelled aircraft (at least some of which were F-35s, if not all, as someone geolocated a picture during the conflict) were not running transponders, though (and in the case of the picture of the F-35, had the radar reflectors removed).

    • hoch@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Military transport and refueling planes often fly with their transponders on, that’s not unusual. Combat aircraft, not so much.

    • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It says Air Force refueling planes so technically not war planes. Not a chance actual military planes are trackable.

      • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        I live near a big refueling base in the US and the tankers are usually trackable. Ditto for military cargo planes, Orions, and military passenger planes.

        What happens when they’re on their way to active deployments … that I don’t know.

        • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Flight plans for these day they are going to Europe. A bluff doesn’t really make sense in the context. Most likely we will assist Israel in controlling the airspace around Iran.