ID this plane

reply to post by _Del_


We do have woman here in Montana. Not just sheep.

reply to post by w810i


What do you have the women for??

reply to post by w810i

Ya its like a tree fort for high ranking nuclear strategists! I;m trying to talk my wife into letting me get one, but she says the lawn is to small!

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


I'll let you know when we figure it out!

reply to post by w810i


I forget where Kalispell is in relationship to Lake Pend O'Reille.

There's long been rumored to be a fairly secret Navy sub testing base somewhere on/in the lake. It is one of the deepest in the country.

I wonder if there might be some sort of coordination testing going on there.

It would be interesting to know if the "touch and goes" are in the direction of Sandpoint!

Great backpacking and other country. I miss it a lot.

Now that I've read the thread . . . LOL . . . I think everyone else's explanations are much better than my off the wall conjectures.

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reply to post by BO XIAN


Its 200 miles and some change from me. I am 60 miles from the Canadian border and about 172 miles from sandpoint

reply to post by w810i


The Air Force places the numbers on the tail, while the Navy puts them on the fuselage near the tail, or on the base of the tail.

USAF KC-135:



USN E-6B:



NKC-135:



The Navy also uses a different numbering system than the Air Force does. For large aircraft in the Air Force (transports, tankers, any non-Air Combat Command aircraft), the first digit of the tail number is the last digit of the year it was built (for example C-135 12668, the 1 is the last digit of 1961), the rest of the number is the aircraft number. The Navy E-6B uses a similar system, but their C-130s and fighters use a different number system.

ACC aircraft put the two digits of the year made, before the aircraft number.



ACC aircraft can include bombers, fighters, even a few tankers.

Maybe the plane is out of Malmstrom AFB
www.malmstrom.af.mil...

Since the plane (if it is the E-6B) has Balistic Missile capability and Malstrom is the largest missile complex in the Western Hemisphere, I am of the mind that it came out of MAFB.

What it was doing hanging around in that air space is still in question.

reply to post by azureskys


Nope, the E-6B (and it is an E-6B) only has one base, that's at Tinker in Oklahoma. All E-6s have been upgraded to the B standard.

As for what it was doing there, it was doing touch and goes for foreign field qualifications for the pilots. They have to do so many landings and take offs a month that aren't at their home station.

It doesn't have ballistic missile capability, it has the battlestaff who relay the launch codes to the missile crews, and the ability to talk to submarines and relay the launch codes to them.

It still out circling. I can hear it. Its been flying since I got home at 4 and its now almost 9

reply to post by w810i


It's monthly qualification time. With the money shifted around by both the Navy and the Air Force the crews can fly again, which means the ones that were grounded (for the Air Force, I'm not sure about the Navy) can fly again, but have to requalify on the aircraft.

They are out of Tinker. The E-6B took over the LOOKING GLASS job of the EC-135C. They can launch ICBM's from the air if ground control is whiped out.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I guess it just strikes me as odd that they would come up here of all places.

reply to post by w810i


They go to a lot of places. There was one in Austin last week, I've seen them at Tinker at their home station, several places in Texas besides Austin, and heard of them at a number of bases. They try to go to places that are different from their home station, to train in different conditions. Some bases near mountains, some civilian airfields, some bases near the ocean, etc.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Gotcha! Thanks for shedding some light on that. We don't see a lot of big military planes like that up here usually unless its an airshow. Im gonna guess that seeing that lumbering around the sky a lot of preppers are gonna be freaking out.

The B model is equipped with an ALCS or Airborne Launch Control System that is capable of launching U.S. land based intercontinental balastic missiles. The A model is the navy sub relay system, although all E-6's are up to the B standard and they have a combined mission now.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by azureskys

 

It doesn't have ballistic missile capability, it has the battlestaff who relay the launch codes to the missile crews, and the ability to talk to submarines and relay the launch codes to them.

While they are underwater...

...the Navy's TACAMO ("Take Charge and Move Out") mission. TACAMO links the NCA with naval ballistic missile forces during times of crisis. The aircraft carries a very low frequency communication system with dual trailing wire antennas.

www.navair.navy.mil...

Low Frequency Antennas transmit Subsonic sound under water the best. Like whale song, it can be heard a long ways. That way subs don't have to surface and expose themselves to receive their launch codes (a very big deal). HARRP radio antenna farms utilize the same low frequency principle.

Yes its a "doomsday" plane. But don't worry, its just "practicing". Never intended to actually ever go to war in the Pacific for real... (ahem) these days, I mean.

reply to post by intrptr


But they do have the ability to launch ICBM'swhile airborne. Its a failsafe in case we have Minot missileers on duty

Also, its one of the few planes we have in the inventory who maintain a constant state of Alpha (or 30 minute launch) alert status. It would suck to be on that alert!

Times like this I wish I could have gotten into the Air Force

reply to post by Zaphod58


My mistake I some how omitted that fact completely while reading up on the plane.
What I actually read (and should have entered) was:

The E-6B is a dual-mission aircraft capable of fulfilling either the E-6A mission or the airborne strategic command post mission and is equipped with an airborne launch control system (ALCS). The ALCS is capable of launching U.S. land based intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Thank you
What a huge skrew up that was. Sorry for the misinformation
I am so glad you corrected it.

I now realize I am waaay too sleepy to be trying to read and interpret anything at this time.
Good night