Hello you.
The plane flew over Dublin to Shannon to Cork, and then back to Dublin again in a triangular formation for five hours. …The plane’s transponder – which sends certain information to receivers on the ground – showed it to be a Boeing E6 Mercury, belonging to the US Navy.
It is now believed it may have been a Boeing E3 aircraft [which “provides surveillance, command, control and communications, and is used by the United States Air Force”].
The plane stayed at a constant 28,000 feet throughout its journey over Ireland
Five Hours.
AWACS, dude.
Why Did A US Spy Plane Spend Five Hours Over Ireland (Jack Quann, Newstalk)
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Give the most likely scenario at number 2 and then ignore it for a crazy theory that makes no sense as an E3 would not need to train over a specific are to prepare for a role
Also curious as during the g7 summit in Fermanagh, the Russian equivalent of this was operating in Irish air space and refuelling and static on the apron at Dublin airport for 7 days
You one these tech talkers about something you’ve never had a role in?
I pity the fool that talks jibber jabber
I cannot good English.
Where’s Wally ?
Major oil find of the coast earlier in the year so it stands to reason that we’re gonna get us a big batch of freedom from the Yanks.
That or Aliens.
Na. we’ll just sell it to them for a crate of diet coke instead
Russian subs in the porcupine basin
Isis columns attacking via South East of Europe, these guys lining up on the west of Europe after their 3 week trip from North Korea. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/more-50-north-korea-submarines-6305531
Yes, it’s a daily mirror article…
It did the same on Tuesday. Flight support for east bound B-1s apparently . Neutral you say :-)
We gave that up ages ago
You want to show me why you think we are neutral, strategically non aligned is the correct term
How can we call ourselves a non-combatant neutral Republic? Why don’t they do this over Switzerland?
They were right to climb the fences in Shannon and attempt an inspection for weapons, something which our military and civil authorities refused to do. Tonnes of munitions have transited through Ireland on the way to destabilising or destroying another sovereign state
A ‘state’, just the one? Let me correct that oversight “destabilising or destroying the middle east and parts of Nth /Nth East Africa”.
There now, that fits better me thinks.
Kolmo we don’t, we are not neutral, successive governments have Pursued a policy of neutrality, in many international conflicts. But neutrality is not a enshrined position in any Irish law
I would love to live in this world of absolute moral relativism where Uncle Sam’s every bit as bad as Osama Bin Laden if, like, you really, like, think about it, maaan. I’m more like Batman in The Lego Movie, sometimes I have to work in shades of very dark grey.
Who’s killed more civilians? Uncle Sam of Bin Laden?
Stalin or Hitler? Mao v Stalin? King Mithridates or General Sulla? Dunno if simply adding up the numbers is the best way of determining who’s bad.
Agreed, Liam. Which region of the world has oppressed more women and executed more apostates and homosexuals in the last few decades? The Deep South of the US or Afghanistan under the Taliban? Misery maths is fun but ultimately fruitless.
Bin Laden, because Uncle Sam is a fictional character.
Touché!
The fact that you think it’s an ‘either or’ scenario shows your lack of knowledge of how the world works. Everyone looks out for their own perceived interests, by whatever means they can.
It’s not a case of either/or, but the extent to which their power lies. Bin Laden had one opportunity to create an act of mass terror. The Americans have done this (on a larger scale, with far more wide reaching circumstances) since at least the 1950s (sometimes for reasons as spurious as a member of Eisenhower’s Secretary of State having financial reasons to see the democratically elected government of Guatemala being overthrown. After 30 years of civil war, and 150-200,000 dead, the impact is still being felt in the country today. and the US still has a military presence).
what a cretin Neilo, really, just shut up.
Play the ball, don, it sits on you more kindly than insults.
It’s somehow Denis O’Brien’s fault
So what was it doing?
Probably just checking that all the CIA agents are in place and preparing to subvert our general election in 2016 to make sure the Blueshirts get back in again.
There are still spy planes?
my microwave lit up all of a sudden one evening…
Anything to do with Daniel O’Donnell? He’s been worryingly out of the news for a week now.
It’s an AWACS, Airborne Warning and Control System, spotting those pesky Russian Bears in the North Atlantic. Seeing as we do not possess an Active Radar in this country, they’re more than welcome.
it’s all fun and games until they “accidentally” down a civil aircraft full of people and then spend the next three decades hiding all proof.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerolinee_Itavia_Flight_870
It’s a converted Boeing 707 with a very large radome on its back. It ain’t going to shoot down anything.
Clearly it was using the iphone for directions to Shannon airport..
Maybe its reconnaissance for an upcoming Obama visit.
Do they not have Google Earth?
It could well be, question would be who he might be ‘stumping’ for?
Where’s Zuppy when we need her/him?
Seeing as we are a defenceless country, more prone to trendy pinko anti-American waffle (Squee, anyone?), than any kind of critical foreign policy analysis, the more the USAF want to fly over us the better, as far as I’m concerned.
more a g7 than a g77 man eh.
maybe edna called them in to protect Newgrange, Tara, the cliffs of Moher and his hay barn from ISIS bombs.
No doubt training with the authorities here but that’s all being kept low key. Irish radar is not able to track aircraft that switch off their transponders and thus the above is possible a rehersal for any hijacking style scenario. Irish Air Corps certainly wouldn’t be able to make an intercept and US aircraft being used is far less controversial than RAF so……
Of course the leftie pinkies will have another opinion. Spying for Irish water or whatever.
Looking for a good golf course I’d say
US protection should be welcomed unless you want to take money out of our social services to pay for AA installations throughout the country. We rely on NATO powers for most of out defenses and a lot of our search and rescue capacity so it is good that they are training in our otherwise unprotected airspace.
Defend us from whom? The only country to ever wage war on us is the NATO member just a few minutes flight time to our east.
We don’t ‘rely’ on NATO powers to defend us. They use us as a doormat on the way to kill people in resource rich countries.
Don’t remember them waging war on us since the 1920s? Surely we can let by gones be by gones?
Sure don’t we get to take advantage of those resource rich countries too after NATO goes in? Lol.