Fun With Google Earth

[BuckyBuckner]

Couldn't it be something as simple as it needed emergency repairs and this was the closest place to land?

Also, Bob, you say that there is no record of it landing there. Wouldn't that make sense for a plane that is meant to be stealth that it wouldn't have a record of it's landings?

Again, I'm dumb, so what do I know.

[amcg]

Couldn't it be something as simple as it needed emergency repairs and this was the closest place to land?

Also, Bob, you say that there is no record of it landing there. Wouldn't that make sense for a plane that is meant to be stealth that it wouldn't have a record of it's landings?

Again, I'm dumb, so what do I know.

Nah, I heard it uses the Batsign. It's like a double-double-double bluff.

[Bob Kohm]

Couldn't it be something as simple as it needed emergency repairs and this was the closest place to land?

That would be pretty unlikely but surely possible. What makes it unlikely is the white rectangular object next to it-- which has the same dimensions as the "take" vans that are used at field postings for U2 and other recon aircraft to process their recorded data. To me that says "deployment".

Also, Bob, you say that there is no record of it landing there. Wouldn't that make sense for a plane that is meant to be stealth that it wouldn't have a record of it's landings?

Again, I'm dumb, so what do I know.

You'd be surprised at how openly acknowledged "normal" postings of the U2 and even things like Global Hawk and now even the Beast of Kandahar are-- check out the 380th Exped Wing's website for photos, press releases, stories, etc about the U2 deployment to a "undisclosed SW Asian Airfield" in support of the Afghan campaign, for instance. You can also dial in the ramp at Beale AFB in California to see U2s and a much more "secret" Global Hawk on the ramp.

What makes this sighting pretty unique is that it is of a strategic recon system in place at an airbase that we have never acknowledged operating out of. Given the extended range of the U2 that allows it to fly from outside the region and from established bases, forward basing it at a place like Dar es Salaam, with all the political freight that holds, says to me it was making "local" runs over a significant period of time. That supports two missions-- anti-piracy, which is pretty doubtful given that we haven't really done much in that arena as well as it being a job better suited to other platforms; you'd use something like P3s for naval search. The other mission makes much more sense-- recon of aQ and associated training facilities that were active in Somalia and Sudan and that were supposedly hit in this time frame by SEALs and DELTA operators. That's a much more "U2" mission-- high recon photography of static positions in hostile territory with little air defense to do pre and post strike assessments.