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I so desperately hope this is true. The DoD and military have become so risk averse and politically correct (e.g. "work place violence"), I am half-surprised this guy didn't get court-martialed, or at least told to "stand down:"

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The Aviationist reports that in March a U.S. MQ-1 drone came close to being intercepted by an Iranian F-4 Phantom combat plane, but the Iranian aircraft stopped short after a warning by an American pilot.

“He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home,’” Gen. [Mark] Welsh [USAF Chief of Staff] said.

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[quote="ELB"]I so desperately hope this is true. The DoD and military have become so risk averse and politically correct (e.g. "work place violence"), I am half-surprised this guy didn't get court-martialed, or at least told to "stand down.

I saw this and it made my day. Great job USAF! You make me proud.

It's true. The F-4's intercepted one of our drones. The F-22 Raptor pilot that was escorting the drone was actually the vehicle that flew under the F-4's undetected, then slid up beside the F-4 and the pilot called them warned them off. I am sure it was a surprise to see the fighter show up beside them without ever knowing he was that close. Reminiscent of the Top Gun inverted F-14 scene.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013 ... coast.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doesn't it defeat the purpose of adrone to escort it with a hyperexpensive manned fighter though?

Cedar Park Dad wrote:Doesn't it defeat the purpose of adrone to escort it with a hyperexpensive manned fighter though?

Not really. The Somali's, Afghani's, and people crossing the border with Mexico don't have the ability to throw rocks, or to hit the drones with small arms, or even shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles . The Irani's, however, fly some high-performance supersonic aircraft with good radar systems that can easily locate and let them shoot down a drone. Thats why the US, in international waters near Iran (Red Sea, etc.) usually escorts drones that are flying outside in international waters to make sure that our drones are not harassed or harmed.

The drones can carry a lot of specialized intelligence gathering equipment that's not normally flown on non-recce aircraft - that's the other reason it's not a duplication of effort. Recce aircraft are often weaponless, or armed with only basic self-defense weapons - nothing to go up against an Iranian F4 that's intent on taking them down.

n5wd wrote:

Cedar Park Dad wrote:Doesn't it defeat the purpose of adrone to escort it with a hyperexpensive manned fighter though?

Not really. The Somali's, Afghani's, and people crossing the border with Mexico don't have the ability to throw rocks, or to hit the drones with small arms, or even shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles . The Irani's, however, fly some high-performance supersonic aircraft with good radar systems that can easily locate and let them shoot down a drone. Thats why the US, in international waters near Iran (Red Sea, etc.) usually escorts drones that are flying outside in international waters to make sure that our drones are not harassed or harmed.

The drones can carry a lot of specialized intelligence gathering equipment that's not normally flown on non-recce aircraft - that's the other reason it's not a duplication of effort. Recce aircraft are often weaponless, or armed with only basic self-defense weapons - nothing to go up against an Iranian F4 that's intent on taking them down.

Interesting.

There may be other assets in the air and on the water of the Persian (or, as the Arabs prefer, Arabian) Gulf that would make having some fighters on Combat Air Patrol quite handy. Would not be surprised to find an AWACS, U-2(s), aerial refueling tankers, airlifters in transit, plus various surface ships, all of which would benefit from having a couple Raptors available on short notice.

n5wd wrote:Recce aircraft are often weaponless, or armed with only basic self-defense weapons - nothing to go up against an Iranian F4 that's intent on taking them down.

I flew Recce for many years on Cobra Ball. I can assure you we were completely defenseless, we didn't even carry jamming equipment.

More than once (a lot more than once) we were "painted" by Soviet interceptors. You don't really know stress until you hear missle lock tone at 40,000ft over the Arctic ocean, and you're in a plane that's about as responsive as the Queen Mary.