One Week In April 1986 - Operation El Dorado Canyon

[Switchblade]

Of all the time I have spent monitoring military communications there is
one particular event that stands out with particular notoriety. For me
at least the month of April 1986 was one of the most intense and
interesting monitoring experiences I have had.

Following the terrorist IED strike at the German nightclub which killed
2 and injured numerous others, US Military personnel included. What
followed was a major joint operation carried out by the USAF and the USN
6th Fleet. This was Operation El Dorado Canyon and was the first combat
mission by US Air Power from UK shores since the end of the Second World
War. What follows is my traffic log from the build up from 10th April
1986. The mission comms from RAF Fairford as the tanker cells departed,
the night time/early hours return of the strikers and their tankers.
Until some days after the mission which includes some post mission
SR-71A com logs and some other interesting intercepts.

I was a teenager at the time but I think I did pretty well with my
trusty AOR AR-2001 and Signal R-532 which certainly served me so well
that week (both are working as I type this :-)I was bunking off school
too so it was triple bliss!! There may be some mistakes but I am quite
confident I did pretty good with the callsigns involved.

The Build Up.
10th April 1986.

Gold 12 16.31L 335.5 (FFD TWR) KC-135A inbound EGVA
Gold 13 16.31L " " "

11th April 1986

Scraw 87 07.34 Eastern Radar 285.5-299.5 KC-135 inbound EGUN
Scraw 88 07.36 " " "
Scraw 89 07.38 " " "

Debar 63 18.00 Fairford Twr 383.3 KC-10A inbound
Debar 65 18.40 " " "
Debar 64 19.00 " " "
Hoist 02 23.12 Banter Control 275.3 KC-10A inbound EGUN
Clue 40B 23.17 Mildenhall Dispatch 277.3 C-21A inbound EGUN (mission planning related no doubt?)

12th April 1986

Video 07 09.35 Eastern Radar 285.5 F-111F (Test Flight callsign)
Hoist 03 15.19 Eastern Radar 354.7 Kc-10A inbound EGUN
Spar 94 18.30 Upper Heyford Deps 346.1 C-21A outbound UPH
Happy 91 20.45 London Mil (North) 342.8 KC-135E inbound EGUN
Gucci 17 23.30 Mildenhall CP 335.3 inbound EGUN KC-10A
Gucci 21 23.30 " " "
Gucci 17 23.30 " " "

13th April 1986
Gucci 17 02.04 Fairford CP 335.3 KC-10A inbound EGVA at 02.30L
Gucci 21 05.04 Fairford Tower 383.3 KC-10A inbound EGVA
Gucci 22 08.51 Brize Radar 341.3 KC-10A inbound EGVA (all 3 a/c repositioned from Mildenhall)

Anzack 10 09.10 Eastern Radar (CAC) 229.3 KC-10A inbound EGUN
Hoist 06 11.26 SAC Operations 275.3 KC-10A inbound EGUN
Hoist 07 11.59 Banter Ops (SAC) 275.3 KC-10A "
Spar 85 12.22 Heyford Departures 346.1 C-21A outbound UPH (more indication that an op was on if anymore were needed!!)

Lowler 93 12.50 Eastern Radar - 228.05 KC-10A inbnd EGUN
Lowler 43 13.26 " " "

14.April 1986

Hoist 08 07.10 Eastern Radar 286.4 KC-10A inbound EGUN
Hoist 61 11.35 London ATCC 132.8 KC-10A Green 1 airway Eastbound- Woodley - Kennit - Barkway -INBOUND EGUN

Hoist 08 12.25 3-Geese Control FFD CP 335.3 KC-10A outbnd EGUN in EGVA
Gold 32 13.41 Brize Norton Radar 341.3 KC-135A out EGVA to ?
Gold 42 16.08 " " KC-135A in EGVA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Launch from RAF Fairford (all times British Summer Time)

Dobby 31 18.41 LJAO Daventry Mil - 353.2 KC-135A Routing Tacan Red 1 West-BZN-Direct Lands End.

Debar 51 18.41 Brize Radar 341.3 KC-10A direct Lands End in the climb from EGVA after a very rapid streaming comm out departure from EGVA.

Debar 54 " " KC-10A "
Debar 53 " " KC-10A "

Dobby 61 18.44 Brize Radar 341.3 KC-135A in the climb Dep EGVA Dir LND. These were tasked to refuel the Debar callsigns it seems.
Dobby 62 " " " KC-135A "

Debar 52 18.45 Brize Radar 341.3 KC-10A "

Debar 58 18.46 LJAO DAV Mil 353.2 KC-10A TR-1 West DIR LND
Debar 88 " "
Debar 89 " " KC-10A 2nd wave of Mildenhall tankers + chicks

Debar 55 20.35 Brize Radar 341.3 KC-10A in the climb from EGVA
Debar 56 20.55 " " " "

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dobby 62 21.51 London Mil (South) 354.6 KC-135A inbound EGVA (22.00 finals).

Dobby 35 21.54 LJAO Daventry Mil 353.2 KC-135A/E TR1 BZN EAST-EGUN
Dobby 32 23.20 London Mil (South) 354.6 " TR1 YVL East
Dobby 36 23.44 LJAO Daventry Mil 353.2 KC-135A/E TR1 BZN EAST-EGUN

Lujac 50 23.44 Eastern (LKH CAC) 228.05 F-111F inbound EGUL (air spare?)

Debar 83 23.56 London Mil 354.6 KC-10A TR1-YVL-BZN-EGUN
Debar 84 " " " " "

Dobby 34 23.57 " " KC-135 "

15th April 1986

Debar 53 00.20 " 133.30 KC-10A TR1-YVL-DIR-EGVA
Debar 90 00.22 " " KC-10A "

Dobby 37 00.35 225.80 KC-135 inbound EGUN
Dobby 91 00.43 LJAO Daventry Mil 353.20 KC-135 TR1-BZN-E-EGUN
Debar 85 00.54 " " 353.20 KC-10A "

Thats it for now loads to follow!!

[Blackcat1]

Nice1!! remember reading about that in an old copy of MASNN. Would have loved to have seen that launch! i was only 5 at the time! lol

Thanks for posting, interesting read.

[Switchblade]

Hello Scarcrow,

Yes, I arrived at Fairford with my elder brother after deducing that ops were on (USAF Ground Net radio traffic gave the game away re the launch!!). We arrived to see the tankers nose to tail along the taxiways and after a little wait started their Emcon Alpha (COMM OUT) streaming departure. I think due to traffic deconfliction they had to talk to Brize upon climbout rather than stay comm out to Lands End. I will always remember one of the Debar callsign element leads saying "go tactical" as they headed down the Tacan route to Lands End.

[Knife 04]

Great report. I remember it well but unfortunately did not get to see the launches. Still have the souvenirs though!



Thanks for posting and looking forward to the next chapter!

[garyscott]

Not sure of the exact date but i can remember mid afternoon watching quite a few KC-10's,KC-135's and F-111's flying over the Taunton area at about 15 - 20000ft in large spread out formations heading towards the general direction of the tip of Cornwall. Ill never forget that.

[Freeman Lowell]

Talking of souvenirs, who's still got their

L akenheath
I s
B ombing
Y our
A ss

sticker?

Funnily enough, there was no reference to this strike when I was in Tripoli a few years back. Quite a bit of reference to the capture of the USS Philadelphia in 1803 though!

Freeman

[Mike]

Was this the time when Mildenhall was bombarded with KC-10's ?
24? of them,I think,on the ground together before the F1-11F's went off from the 'Heath (I think France and Spain were against the routing,so they had to go the long way around).

[Switchblade]

I didn't sleep much that night as the monitoring was way too good for that and the anticipation of monitoring the returning Task Force Zulu (as it was supposedly known as!). The tankers and their chicks started to appear with London Military in the early morning. The first SR-71A launch was missed (I fell asleep) though I boxed the second (this was the first time that Det.4 had both Habu's in the air at the same time in the detachments history). I also managed to box some of the swingers as they detached from their tankers and pushed either ops, Eastern Radar or Lakenheath Approach.

The 20 channels available on the AR-2001 were as good as it got in those days and at 5 ch's a second made for slow going searching (I later modded mine :-) so it was faster - 7ch's/sec whoopee!!). The added flexibility of the superb Signal Radio Corporation R-532 with it's ten user selectable banks of 10 channels was put to good use too. Armed with only these two gems it was still possible to do very well monitoring.

15th April 1986 Early - Morning Post Strike Recovery (TIME =GMT)

Debar 86 07.25 LJAODaventry Mil 353.20 KC-10A Tacan Red 1 -BZN- in the descent for EGUN
Debar 87 07.27 ------" ----- " --- " ----------- "
Debar 91 07.30 ------ " ----- " --- " --------- "

Debar 55 07.41 London Military (Sth) 354.6 KC-10A (91713) Tacan R1 YVL Dir EGVA

Debar 81 07.50 ---- " 135.15 KC-10A plus Chicks - YVL-DIR BZN
Debar 82 07.50 ---- " 135.15 KC-10A plus chicks - YVL-DIR-BZN
Debar 57 07.55 Brize Approach 341.30 KC-10A inbound EGVA RWY 27 f/stop

Finey 56 08.00 LJAODaventry Mil 129.20 KC-10A Tacan Red 1 BZN Westbound (SR-71A Support)

Puffy 11 FLT 08.12 Lakenheath App. 250.30 F-111F x3 PAR full stop, inbound EGUL (Puffy 11 = IL-76 Killer)

Debar 88 08.15 LJAO Dav. Mil 353.20 KC-10A plus chicks TR1 East EGUN
Debar 71 08.20 Banter Ops. 275.30 KC-10A inbound EGUN

Elton 41 FLT 08.25 Eastern Radar (LKH CAC) 347.20 F-111F X3 inbound EGUL

Dobby 37 08.30 Banter Ops. 275.30 KC-135A/E ops call inbound EGUN
Dobby 36 08.44 Honington Radar. 226.35 KC-135A/E inbound EGUN

Tromp 31 08.55 London Mil North 342.80 SR-71A inbound EGUN
Finey 55 08.56 LJAO Dav. Mil 353.20 KC-135Q ----- "

[Knife 04]

Talking of souvenirs, who's still got their

L akenheath
I s
B ombing
Y our
A ss

sticker?

Funnily enough, there was no reference to this strike when I was in Tripoli a few years back. Quite a bit of reference to the capture of the USS Philadelphia in 1803 though!

Freeman

Yep - still got that sticker along with the 'Smokin' the Camel Bomb Competition 86' one and the T-Shirts, patches and books etc

Was this the time when Mildenhall was bombarded with KC-10's ?
24? of them,I think,on the ground together before the F1-11F's went off from the 'Heath (I think France and Spain were against the routing,so they had to go the long way around).

They did fly around France and Spain due to restrictions imposed by their Governments eventually entering the Med via Gibraltar. I recommend a read of 'Raid on Qadaffi' by Col Bob Venkus (Col USAF retired) who was the deputy commander of the 48th TFW at the time (under the command of Sam Westbrook). The books tells how the initial plan of a minimal strike force was expanded to an 'armarda' at very short notice and the difficulties encountered in the training.

Switchblade - I see in your report the air spare returning with the call sign 'Lujon'. I have the callsigns for the '111Fs as 'Lujac', 'Remit', 'Elton', 'Jewel', 'Karma' and 'Puffy' flights depending on assigned targets - is it possible that the airspares returned with alternative callsigns? Do not have any record of the 'Spark Vark' call signs

Looking forward to the next installment!

[Switchblade]

Hi Knife,

Yes I made a mistake on that callsign. The Spark Varks were "Harpy 71-75" though I never boxed them that night/morning. Out of interest the Ex. Salty Nation mass launch of the 20th TFW in amongst the El Dorado Canyon launch meant that I had to focus away from the Heyford traffic. The Heyford launch was a ruse to make the Russian Commint assets look the other way whilst the strike package slipped Westward (well that was the plan no doubt). Like the 48th jets, the 42nd ECS callsigns were comm out on launch anyway.

[Knife 04]

Purely an oversight I am sure with so much going on that evening!

I think the 20TFW used 'Ghost Rider' as the ruse (or at least they had done on flights to Newfoundland etc) - maybe you have more knowledge of what was used that night

Any information on 'Tromp 30' from the next installment - I aquired a photo of this taxi-ing back to its lair on the 15th

I have some shots of the participants of 'Eldorado Canyon' from the Lakenheath Open Day in June 1986 if you are interested

Cheers

[Switchblade]

Hi Knife,

Sadly I missed Tromp 30 and most of the Finey callsigns (KC-135Q's and KC-10''s) that supported Tromp 30. (I was ZZZ..zzz) I don't recall where the 20th TFW assets went that night although I did hear a group of 6 callsigns return to Upper Heyford on the 16th as Gogo 56-60 and 90 and I recall they came from the South (Incirlik Det jets returning /coincidence?). Whether there was any relevance to the "mission" (i.e a contingency plan) related to these callsigns I don't know. The 20th Salty Nation exercise jets were using callsign "Reager" from my notes.

To go back to the Habu's, there were 2 more missions that I monitored over the next couple of days which were focussed on Libya and the post mission Bomb Damage Assesment. Weather and technical issues on the first 2 missions lead to the third.

Cheers,

Josh
p.s I would be interested to see the pic's especially of Tromp 30 :-)

[graham luxton]

Hi Josh,
I'm enjoying this and surprised at how much I'd forgotten!
I took a lot of cine film of the operation at both Fairford and Mildenhall and shot up to the 'Hall early on the 15th to film some recoveries. Lakenheath was landing on Runway 06 and the F-111F's came over top on approach in some very dull conditions.
I also remember getting both SR-71A's with photo noses. Trout99 had been postioned at Mildenhall to take strike and post strike materials back to the 'states but departed late because it could'nt get out of its parking spot due to a parked C-5 blocking its exit! When they finally found a tow bar to move the C-5 out of the way the tanker RV time had become an issue and the aircraft commander was someone with no sense of humour!
Looking forword to more,
regards,
Graham.

[Switchblade]

Hi Graham,

I am very glad that you have enjoyed my posts thus far I did actually wonder whilst I was doing the mission launch post whether you had managed to get any footage of the 48th jets on recovery. But getting both the Habu's aswell, sounds like mission accomplished to me . I wish that I had managed to box the Spark Varks but I soon maxxed out my AR-2001 memories just following the tankers and F-111F''s.

I knew that Trout99 took the Habu's take back to the States as you say, though I wasn't able to monitor it's departure. I imagine the traffic on the Banter Ops freq was "interesting". How can you mislay a C-5 tow bar!!?

I will post some more later for the SR-71A missions which took place over the following couple of days.

Best Regards,

Josh

[Dunk]

Thanks for these logs from yesteryear, great to be reminded of these events - cant wait for some more.

Dunk

[Knife 04]

I will post the shot of 'Tromp 30' as soon as i can find it in one of the boxes of slides I have!

Looking forward to the next installment in the meantime. I did not have a scanner at that time - were they comms out on recovery as well?

Many thanks for posting the previous installements (unfortortunately makes me realise how old I am!)

Cheers

[Switchblade]

The day after the raid was quite a quiet one monitoring wise although the 48th TFW was back flying training missions, the 20th TFW was still mounting exercise missions in addition to the arrival of 6 F-111E's from over seas that did not have the exercise callsign. Of more importance, there was a second SR-71A mission to Libya to collect more imagery for further assessment (this was due to poor weather over some of the targets previously). The 3rd Habu mission on the 17th was supposedly due to a tech issue with the lead blackbird on the 2nd mission and Lute 31 was not subsequently made aware of the problems with 30's jet. I have not included all of the log only El Dorado Canyon traffic and a couple of other movements that may have been related to the mission (plus the one Coronet support callsign).

16th April 1986

Fatty 54 09.20 Eastern Radar -----347.2 KC-135Q Dav Corridor West.
Fatty 55 09.22 Eastern Radar------347.2 KC-135Q """""......"""''''' o/EGUN-
Fatty 53 09.23 LJAO Daventry Mil--353.2 KC-135Q ''''"""....."""''''''''

Gogo 56 11.21 "Switchblade" CP---310.35 F-111 CP call inbnd UPH
Gogo 57 ""."" """"".""""" ""---"""."" ""."" """."" "".""
Gogo 58 ""."" """"".""""" ""---"""."" ""."" """."" "".""
Gogo 59 ""."" """"".""""" ""---"""."" ""."" """."" "".""
Gogo 60 ""."" """"".""""" ""---"""."" ""."" """."" "".""
Gogo 90 11.45 """"".""""" ""---"""."" ""."" """."" "".""

Fatty 54 13.34 Banter Control 275.30 KC-135Q CP call RTB EGUN
Fatty 55 ""."" ""---"""."" ""."" """."" ""."" ""---""".""

Lute 31 13.57 London Military 265.70 SR-71A Tacan R1 E-BZN

Fatty 56 17.30 London Mil S/W 338.50 KC-10A ""---"""."""".""
Fatty 51 17.40 LJAO Dav. Mil 361.20 KC-135Q ""---"""."""".""
Dobby 32 17.43 LJAO Dav. Mil 361.20 KC-135A ""---"""."""".""
---------------------------------------------------------------------

17th April 1986

Minor 56 13.24 London Mil (S/W) 245.90 KC-10A Tacan R1 -W-BZN
Minor 54 14.05 London ATCC 249.70 KC-135Q Tacan R1 -W-BZN
Minor 55 14.30 LJAO Dav. Mil 353.20 KC-135Q Tacan R1 -W-BZN

Tunnel 49 15.09 LJAO Dav. Mil 353.20 EC-135 Tacan R1 -E-EGUN

Phony 30 15.12 Eastern Radar 287.10 SR-71A inbound EGUN

Minor 54 16.54 LJAO Dav. Mil 353.20 KC-135Q wx divert EGVA
Brown 41 17.18 3-Geese Control(CP) 335.50 KC-135 Coronet Support-in Fairford.

Minor 51 17.43 London Mil S/W 338.50 KC-10A Tacan R1 E-BZN
Minor 52 17.44 London Mil S/W 338.50 KC-135Q Tacan R1 E-BZN
Minor 53 17.43 London Mil S/W 338.50 KC-10A Tacan R1 E-BZN
Minor 56 17.43 London Mil S/W 338.50 KC-10A Tacan R1 E-BZN
Minor 54 17.43 London Mil S/W 338.50 KC-135Q Tacan R1 E-BZN
Minor 51 17.43 London Mil S/W 338.50 KC-135Q Tacan R1 E-BZN

Cheers,

Josh

[Switchblade]

Thanks for all the posts by those who were bothered. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has any more insight into the El Dorado Canyon mission and the related support missions. Did anyone else monitor proceedings that week? I am sure someone did. No doubt there will be more information released about the mission as the years role by. At the time I think it was the longest tactical strike mission then endured and probaly laid the foundation for large scale strike efforts in later years. It was certainly a massive undertaking and it was fascinating to see/hear the proceedings and not to forget that a lot of people died that night including the crew of Karma 52.

Cheers,

Josh

[headset 57]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgqDT2mlENo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CHILL51]

Just spotted this thread and yes i remember going over to Fairford that evening and seeing all those tankers and i remember seeing the KC10s powering up on the 27 threshold and the 135s. Great memories and fantastic to read the logs of that evening shortly after this i bought myself a AOR2002 which i still use and works as good as when i bought it with all of its 20 Channels

Mike