Message posted by Magoo on February 05, 2000 at 19:39:50 EST:
Do you honestly think they would have a $40 million F-15 (or two!) fuelled up and ready to go in one of the buildings at Groom, and then let a part timer who may or may not have flown one at some stage take it up on an interception? It's starting to sound a little like 'Independence Day' to me! ("I'll just park my little 'ol cropduster here, down this last bottle of Jack Daniels, and then jump in this here F-18 and go shoot me down a flying saucer! Yeee haaww!!!") Once again, you may know otherwise, but it dosn't make sense to have part-timers or anyone else who is not a full time F-15 (or whatever type it is) specialist flying alert interceptions. Whether it be a Cessna or a Backfire, the interception rules, procedures and methods are basically the same. All efforts would be made to contact and turn away an incursion, and it would only be fired upon at the last moment if it made any threatening gestures or if weapons were viewed and a targeting tone were heard. I doubt any sane fighter or helo pilots would risk their own aircraft by flying close enough to a Cessna just to buffet it with jet or rotor wash! Realistically, how much damage could one suicide bomber with anything short of a nuke do at Groom anyway. The base is so spread out and there is nothing of much value in view, you'd have to know what to aim for to take anything interesting out. I believe that, when all realistic threats are weighed up, the risk is so minimal that there is no need to base anything at Groom itself.
In Reply to: Re: Janet Flights posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on February 04, 2000 at 18:29:42 EST:
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