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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
USAF Probes Iranian Air Defense Response?
2007-04-02
TEHRAN: US warplanes have violated Iranian airspace in the southwestern oil-rich province of Khuzestan, Al-Alam Arabic language news satellite channel quoted a local military chief as saying on Sunday. "Two aircraft trespassed into Iranian airspace northwest of [the southwestern port city of] Abadan before flying southwest into Iraq," a local Revolutionary Guards commander in Abadan identified only as Colonel Aqili was quoted as saying on the channel's Web site.

"The planes left white vapor trails, attracting the local people's attention," he said, giving no time of the incident.

No further information was available as The Daily Star went to press on the alleged violation, which if true could have significant ramifications for already tense relations between Iran and the United States.
Our stealth aircraft and drones are everywhere in the Persian skies. Oh look, over there Mahmoud, there's another one! You say you can't see it? Your bad. Keep looking.
Posted by:Glenmore

#31  I am NOT a TROLL I AM A ANIMAL!!
Don't ya think if we just killed every sheik mullah and well the rest of them we the planet would be so much better off. I know my children are going to be killing these little sheet heads in their future. Let's just do them a favor and get this over with...

oh no here comes my censor...Hey Uncle Joe..sorry Mr Stalin...
Posted by: Mohammed was a pedophile   2007-04-02 01:01  

#30  Wasn't he?
Posted by: Mohammed was a phag.   2007-04-02 00:44  

#29  I here the French are floating the Up-Chuck DeGual out there somewhere...
What does this mean? We get to sink a Gaul Aircraft Carrier and kill some little sheet heads.

One can only hope...
Posted by: Muhammad_is_a_Phag   2007-04-02 00:09  

#28  The Electric P-3C's and the EC130-135's are likely sniffing and probing constantly.
Posted by: anonymous   2007-04-02 20:35  

#27  Wake me when the USAF probes Iran's response to things going KER-BLAM!!
Posted by: DMFD   2007-04-02 18:46  

#26  Oh Lordy we are already hitting on the Perssians with the Dedley Chem-Trails.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-04-02 17:30  

#25  If this was a probe of Iranian Air Defense measures, we could have done it with a drone. The Israelis perfected this in the Bekah Valley back in the 1980s. They would send in an aerial drone and get the Lebanese to light up all their AD radars. Using telemetry, the drone would transmit those frequencies and coordinates back to the IAF so that the incoming wave of fighter bombers could be pre-programmed to spoof or jam those known RF bands. The Lebanese could not rekey their radars quickly enough and source guided missiles did the rest.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-04-02 15:04  

#24  So if that was indeed an act of war, Mr. Iran, go ahead, make my day.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2007-04-02 14:16  

#23  If we were gonna probe you or violate you, you'd know it.
Respectfully,
U.S. Air Force
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2007-04-02 13:50  

#22  Only one plane is required to cause someone to activate AD RADAR. You don't expose two aircraft together when doing that and give an enemy two targets to hit. They would be doing something else and any RADAR data collected from it would be just gravy.
Posted by: crosspatch   2007-04-02 11:00  

#21  One more thing: the US planes you need to be worried about are the ones you can't see.
Posted by: Mike   2007-04-02 10:27  

#20  If I know my Iranian Defense tactics (taken from the Arabs) most of their Air Defense radars are in the off position. The have their Air Traffic control stuff up because they have to but the military stuff is cold. Why? Because “IF” the UK/U.S. want to send the Mullahs an message via “Air Mail”, the Air Defense Radars are a juicy target. Also even though they talk a big game they donÂ’t even want to appear to be aggressive against the U.S. Air Assets in the Persian Gulf. Finally, I would be surprised and disappointed if the military werenÂ’t testing the Air Defenses ALL THE TIME. Heck you never know when you might need a clear route to Tehran or Qom.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2007-04-02 10:22  

#19  I never finished the book, but the thing I remember from it was the US in the early 1950's (before Francis Gary Powers and the U-2) used to fly B-47's over the pole and into Soviet airspace just for sport - because we knew they couldn't stop us.

I found that disturbing at the time I read it, but I hope that's what's going on here!
Posted by: Bobby   2007-04-02 10:14  

#18  Hey Iran....

BOO!!!
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-04-02 09:22  

#17  Our planes only leave contrails if we want them to, it's trivial to predict the altitude for that. So assuming it did happen, it was absolutely intentional. There are a lot of things we can detect with our satellites, but we can still gain a lot of useful information by drawing the Iranians into 'painting' our planes. IF it happened, it was definitely a probe of some sort. Or maybe it was just a 'Hey ya'll! we can violate your airspace at will and there ain't shit you can do about it'.
Posted by: AllahHateMe   2007-04-02 08:32  

#16  On topic. I sure hope it is true. Nothing bothers a bully more than seeing a parent with a big stick.
Posted by: Icerigger   2007-04-02 08:04  

#15  Isn't CAIR or somebody offering a reward for "Islamophobic hatemongers" or similar types? I have an idea.
Let's sell them this Mu-Phag moby and donate the money to the JPFO.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2007-04-02 06:51  

#14  The 12th imam does his prairie dog imitation on Good Friday. The little alarm bell in my head that starts ringing when something big is going to happen is getting louder and more insistent the closer we get to that date.
Posted by: Jonathan   2007-04-02 06:47  

#13  The planes were in Iranian airspace, just like the British sailors and Marines were in Iranian waters.

But why is Iran mentioning it, unless they want to rachet up the stress on oil prices?

When does the 12th imam come out of his hole in the ground?
Posted by: Bobby   2007-04-02 06:09  

#12  I am going with highly unlikely , this seems to me me like truthers. If an American plane was detected one of their sites would have been on fire
Posted by: Flolumble Elmuling1667   2007-04-02 03:55  

#11  (hit enter too soon)

Leaving contrails is pretty blatant. Thats what flight profile planning, etc prevent. This isn't United Airlines, the military does plan around those sorts of conditions so as to not give away the AC's position.

And since those left a contrail and didn't do anything its unlikely they were US jets (if they existed at all).
Posted by: OldSpook   2007-04-02 03:47  

#10  Hare's a clue:

You don't need to overfly to probe defenses.

1) If the enemy is doing their job, they will be painting you well before you get to a border.

2) damn near everything uses side looking recvr and so on - its something we inherited in design from the cold war to look deep over the iron curtain.

3) SIGINT basics. Side lobes of those search, altitude and tracking radars are better for interception than the main beam in some respects. Ask a signals guy about those things - an harmonics, pulse trains, jitter, etc.

So no Virginia, Santa Claus doesn't need to overfly you to probe the defenses. That's what Santa has satellites and for.

If there were US jets violating Iranian airspace, they were doing something other than probing.
Posted by: OldSpook   2007-04-02 03:44  

#9  If there were two planes in formation, they might be doing something other than probing air defenses. We would probably already have a pretty good idea of the locations of Iranian air defense RADAR units.
Posted by: crosspatch   2007-04-02 02:29  

#8  Are the Iranians probing RB's defenses?

not very hard to do we are an open blog. No registration no extra security.

On topic: It's hard to tell if these reports are started by fact or rumor. I guess we'll know if the flag goes up!
Posted by: anonymous   2007-04-02 01:44  

#7  Are the Iranians probing RB's defenses?
Posted by: Flolumble Elmuling1667   2007-04-02 01:36  

#6  Butter on that popcorn?
Posted by: andrewNY   2007-04-02 00:54  

#5  Clean up on isle 4.
Posted by: Mike N.   2007-04-02 00:46  

#4  Obviously it was UFOs
Posted by: Captain America   2007-04-02 00:46  

#3  I suppose they could always try apprehending them too. But I wouldn't advice it....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2007-04-02 00:33  

#2  If we did probe their defenses, their defenses didn't defend. Most anyone with a brain wouldn't admit to not knowing foreign jets were in their airspace until "the locals reported a contrail", but we are talking about the Insanians.
Posted by: Mike N.   2007-04-02 00:29  

#1  Wow. The mods are fast this evening.
Posted by: Mike N.   2007-04-02 00:21  

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