Black F-15s Over UK?

There have been several reports of Black, Twin finned Fighters flying low over Southern UK after the recent terrorist threat. One Witness said the closest plane he could find was F-15.

Are there F-15s in UK (not in RAF service, but USAF planes stationed there)?
And if they're USAF planes, why did they scramble instead of Eurofighters or Tornadoes?

E-model F-15's are painted a very dark Gunship Grey, same color as the B-1B actually. From below against a bright sky, they look black.

There are US F-15's of the 48th Fighter Wing stationed at RAF Lakenheath

The UK has no twin-tailed Aircraft in its inventory.

The F-15's from Lakenheath can be seen at low level most days across the East of England. No location given for the sighting of these aircraft so difficult to say whether it was just the normal day to day flying.

The F-15C's would be more likely to go up in any escort / CAP role rather than the F-15E's which are primarily mud thumpers.

yes there are a couple of US bases in the Uk, with Lakenheath being the largest with a contingent of F15's

I remember around 9/11, they sent a couple of Tornado's over the skies for a while as a precaution.

Bear in mind there are alot of flypast events in London. But other than these events it is rare to see them over urban areas. The south of England has mainly naval bases.

[edit on 10-8-2006 by Peyres]

The only planes painted black are the stealths. Black is actually a very bad color to paint fighters. It's MORE noticable than the grey colors that they use.

Actually, the F-15E has a couple really big advantages:

1. It's Radar and Targeting Pod.
While the APG-63V(1) has most of the updates that the APG-70 came with, the latter can cue it's LANTIRN (or Sniper) pod to look for specific signatures (absence of running lights, logos on the tail, number of engines in what configuration etc. etc.) from quite aways out.

2. It's got CFTs. While ordinarily this would hardly be a matter of celebration in the A2A role, the 48th FW are also just about the only users of F100-PW-229 engines outside maybe Alaska. Which means that they have the gas to stay up for awhile (especially if they are also hauling 610s) and they have the umph to kick it up a notch if things get serious. Ironic really since I remember a certain general demanding that they get those "Bleepity Bleep Bleeping Engine Fire Waiting To Happen Bleepity Bleep Bleeps Off My Airplanes!" not too long ago.

Mind you, fully tanked up, the Flubber or even Fin is just as nice for ADIZ type work in terms of endurance and for USAFE assets to be commited to ADGB taskings would /probably/ require more paperwork through NATO and CENTAF (or whoever runs our assets in the UK now) than it's worth.

About the only condition that would break this rule would be another 9/11 event in which case there may well be a 'nearest fighters available' type modifier that passes tactical control directly to whatever ATC assets have block-airspace responsibility over that part of England.

Don't rule out the Eagle. It's old as the hills but in the F-15E it at least has the correct engine/sensor combination to be an -extremely- potent ADI against 'casual' threats.


KPl.

well not if they are almost exlusively tasked for night missions

If i remember correctly the area of the sighting Swansea... or something similar

Lakenheath is the ONLY contingent of F-15's in the UK and I can definitely tell you they fly multiple daily missions (I used to live under the flight path to the Wash ranges- some days were a constant stream of BEagles).

Which is why the RAF and FAA now paint their whole training fleet gloss black. Looks quite cool actually.

Even at night black is actually more noticable oddly enough. The best way to NOT be noticed at night is to actually light the plane up. Let people see what they expect and they tend to not pay attention to it.

Try telling that to a pilot who has to fly a B-52 at tree top height over a hostile area brimming with Sa-6 missiles.

Jensy

I'm not talking about low altitude insertions. I'm talking about planes that go in HIGH, like the B-2 and F-117 and even some B-52 missions. By lighting them up, they have found that people basically ignore them by explaining them away as stars, or even sattelites.

Ah yes, the old: "that was not a hypersonic recon plane you saw Mr Jones, that was just a shooting star leaving behind strange contrails" story??

If a B-52 pilot is flying at treetop level in a region bristling with SA-6s, then there has been a fundamental screw-up already!

If you saw a white light, high in the sky at night, moving across the sky at a constant speed and high altitude, what would you think. "Oh my god it's a bomber about to attack us!" or "Oh cool, there goes a sattelite!"

Why is black bad zap?

I saw those two F-15s yesterday.

It was the 10th of August, around mid-afternoon and they were flying low and north across Norfolk.

Saw them again today flying south towards London at around midday.

They were dark colored but certainly not black. According to the locals they are quite a common sight, so nothing strange there.

True. That's the B-1's job. I don't think I'd want anything else when bombing at low level.