Cobra 56 - Cobra Ball II 61-2663

[dinger]

A couple of shots of Cobra 56 from today. Didn't notice until I was editing my shots that it has mission marks on the crew door. 2 ballistic missile symbols.

RC-135S 61-2663 RAF Mildenhall 1 by finband76, on Flickr

RC-135S 61-2663 RAF Mildenhall 2 by finband76, on Flickr

RC-135S 61-2663 RAF Mildenhall 3 by finband76, on Flickr

RC-135S 61-2663 RAF Mildenhall 4 by finband76, on Flickr

RC-135S 61-2663 RAF Mildenhall 5 by finband76, on Flickr

RC-135S 61-2663 RAF Mildenhall 6 by finband76, on Flickr

One of many movements in stunning winter light. This was the obvious highlight though.

Dinger.

[BOLLO]

Corr there nice Kev,thought you were stopping down the mound ??

[dinger]

Change of plan Paul and it was the correct choice.

Dinger.

[Skip]

Very nice Dinger, I have not seen one of these for years

[gary1701]

That's nice. Never seen the damn thing but it looks good from Pollards Lane.

Gary

[BOLLO]

Change of plan Paul and it was the correct choice.

Dinger.

Thought ya would some how .

[Jammo]

They are beautiful shots, well done on them

[Knife 04]

Great shots - good that he came down to the over run and spun round so you could get the 'black wing' - well done

Cheers

[GhostFlight91]

Spot on them mate

[HABU 71]

Fantastic shots there Dinger.Great light so nice that you got both sides of the aircraft .Have been after this one for years its the last RC i need.
Was of work today with a cold as well and watched it come in on P/P.



Thanks for posting.
Regards Norm.

[CHRISD]

crackin set mate

[DanBeeden]

Stunning! Fantastic jet in some superb light - great stuff.

[Doughnut]

Nice shots. Out of interest why does this aircraft have one side painted black ? Its not like it on all RC's is it ?

[BP2324]

Just the Cobra Ball that has a matt black starboard wing and engine nacelles.

Older systems used by the RC135S had problems with reflections (glare) reflecting from/on the systems optical glass / windows.
I believe they don't suffer from this anymore but keeping the black adds a bit of mystery/ intrigue to the aircrafts mission as it goes about tracking ballistic missile flights.

[paddyboy]

Absoblinkinglutely stunning

What a catch

Thanks for sharing

Paddyboy

[sg-andel]

Rare catch !!.
Even for Mildenhall !
Was a while ago the last Ball visited The Hall ?!?.

[dinger]

62-4128 was the last Cobra Ball to visit in early October this year.

Dinger.

[page_verify]

Just the Cobra Ball that has a matt black starboard wing and engine nacelles.

Older systems used by the RC135S had problems with reflections (glare) reflecting from/on the systems optical glass / windows.
I believe they don't suffer from this anymore but keeping the black adds a bit of mystery/ intrigue to the aircrafts mission as it goes about tracking ballistic missile flights.

The black wing is kept as a way of telling foreign nation interceptors "I'm on a treaty verification flight so sodd off as I'm allowed to be here", unless of course they're not sitting off the Russian coast in which case they mean "your weapons programme cash is wasted as we'll probably know more than you about your missile test".

[Ashley Wallace]

Lovely Kev, It was a nice surprise when that called up!

I found out yesterday that the two missile mission marks were from two Pakistani missile tests that it was monitoring in November.

[dinger]

Nice one. Cheers for that Ash.

Dinger.