Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the A1 Great North Road. One of the officers used a hand-held radar device to check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 300 mph. Their radar suddenly stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.
Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact latched on to a RAF Tornado fighter jet which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over the Border district, approaching from the North Sea.
Back at police headquarters the chief constable fired off a stiff complaint to the RAF Liaison office.
Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style:
"Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Tornado had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked onto, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, an air-to-ground missile aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto your equipment. Fortunately the pilot flying the Tornado recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile systems alert status, and was able to override the automated defence system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar installation was destroyed"
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How to get revenge on the radar trap
Re: How to get revenge on the radar trap
Nice story.......and it has been around almost every RAF Station. The same one was used around a base I used to frequent - Wittering, near Peterborough on the A1 - home of the Harrier, and also Odiham in Hants which was for Helicopters with no missiles on em....
If only it was true, sadly it's merely apocryphal. It was mainly used to fool the local Police into not putting speed traps close to the airbases as fighter pilots in their sports car's tended to......speed.
Richard
If only it was true, sadly it's merely apocryphal. It was mainly used to fool the local Police into not putting speed traps close to the airbases as fighter pilots in their sports car's tended to......speed.
Richard
Last edited by X5Sport on Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Never anthropomorphise computers. They hate that.
Re: How to get revenge on the radar trap
This certainly is an oldie.