Islamic jihadicals take over Libya airport, 11 jetliners now missing

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Just exactly what is that supposed to mean? What are you saying exactly about the state of Libya prior? Tell us just how bad it was in concrete terms if you are pretending to know something about it. When you say "I hear", it is pretty obvious you don't actually know anything about Libya prior.

So bring it on, cowboy. Do tell.

Place we got involved: #######-hole

Place we didn't get involved: #######-hole

See the connection? I'm sure you can make one.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Join the club. It's a rather large one.

I can't think of anything to type that won't get me banned.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Gary's not even in this thread. Why bring him up?

I miss that dude. He was a Genius at making people dance, the Gary dance.

[Jacque67 7,328]

Gary is obsessed with Obama - like Inspector Dreyfuss in the pink panther films, complete with the twitch in his eye.

Lol!

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Then again maybe the planes are not going anywhere

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Join the club. It's a rather large one.

Of people with the same political persuasion. Funny that. If you can't bully people, put them on ignore ;-)

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Gary's not even in this thread. Why bring him up?

You're right, it's Gary's Uncle I was referring to.

[waka1 28]

All great civilizations make gains through conquest. The ones that encourage scientific exploration do the best. Rome/England/Spain/France were all "war spreaders." But they also spread knowledge.

GD, I agree with you to about the great Islamic accomplishments in science, math, and to a point, tolerance.

Where we hit the bump in this road is the present.

The precursor to ISIS was the taliban, neither seem very interested in science, the arts, or tolerance.

New Salafist terror groups are morphing every day. What happened in the past is past, self-blame and doubt are non-productive.

Does anyone have any doubt that Salafists with WMD's would hesitate to use them ? The "balance for terror" doctrine breaks down...

I don't think the West fully appreciates the scope of the danger, nor what to do about it. Tragically, we eventually will...

The IS took just over a major airport in Libya with major tactical implications. Not to take decisive military action to take out those planes was, and is, an act of lunacy...IMHO

Nuff said

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

GD, I agree with you to about the great Islamic accomplishments in science, math, and to a point, tolerance.

Where we hit the bump in this road is the present.

Well said.. One other thing I think is important is their stated goals, and how far they will go to achieve those goals.

Playing the blame game and talking about the distant past isn't going to solve this.

[GandD 5,966]

GD, I agree with you to about the great Islamic accomplishments in science, math, and to a point, tolerance.

Where we hit the bump in this road is the present.

The precursor to ISIS was the taliban, neither seem very interested in science, the arts, or tolerance.

New Salafist terror groups are morphing every day. What happened in the past is past, self-blame and doubt are non-productive.

Does anyone have any doubt that Salafists with WMD's would hesitate to use them ? The "balance for terror" doctrine breaks down...

I don't think the West fully appreciates the scope of the danger, nor what to do about it. Tragically, we eventually will...

The IS took just over a major airport in Libya with major tactical implications. Not to take decisive military action to take out those planes was, and is, an act of lunacy...IMHO

Nuff said

Yeah, these new guys, they suck. They're not interested in anything more than sinking the world into another dark age. I think the west and our leaders understand exactly the threat that these guys represent. The problem is, they keep popping up. We're not 100% responsible for them, but they certainly use us as a recruitment tool. This is what happens when ignorance is elevated to a level higher than rational thought. This elevation is greatly helped with weapons and religious doctrine. I think the current strategy is the best. Provide air support and tactical advice to the Iraqi army. We'll see how effective it is over the next few months.

[JohnR! 5,495]

That would be more complicated and more easily detectable. It would require having all planes in the air at the same time, which means they would have to take off from different airports where they would need to be fueled. That would leave a traceable signature, especially if someone is looking from above, which we can safely presume to be the case now.

Once airborne, if they tried to enter Eurocontrol airspace at once, they'd be flagged, in addition, if they tried to mix with regular aircraft they might fall prey to visual detection.

My take is that any potential target would have to be located along the Mediterranean rim, such as US bases.

Or spread out along the Mediterranean. Mix them up with some scheduled flights and you have a recipe for complete chaos. Imagine if, in the confusion, a scheduled flight was brought down by mistake, with significant loss of life. Imagine being the person responsible.

I would wager good money that we have assets tracking down the "missing" aircraft right now. The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is eight days away, soon to be seven. Another 9/11 terror attack cannot be allowed to happen.

[Pooky 3,786]

That would be more complicated and more easily detectable. It would require having all planes in the air at the same time, which means they would have to take off from different airports where they would need to be fueled. That would leave a traceable signature, especially if someone is looking from above, which we can safely presume to be the case now.

Once airborne, if they tried to enter Eurocontrol airspace at once, they'd be flagged, in addition, if they tried to mix with regular aircraft they might fall prey to visual detection.

My take is that any potential target would have to be located along the Mediterranean rim, such as US bases.

There are enough targets close enough to be a worry there. The Vatican, any number of historical sites, all would provide a major propaganda coup.

The problem is that if you remove the transponders, civilian ATC loses track of the aircraft and you need to rely on active scan (military) assets. As for coordination, with 11 aircraft, you just need to cause confusion.

The standard QRA detail for the RAF is 2 aircraft on immediate readiness and 2 more at 5 minutes to launch, and that's to meet a Russian incursion from the North. Trying to meet 11 different targets will stretch any air defence contingency plan.

Remember, only 1 needs to reach its target and it's game over.

[GandD 5,966]

Is NATO really dumb enough to not be watching this from space?

[Pooky 3,786]

Is NATO really dumb enough to not be watching this from space?

Without the transponders, there's no way to track them from orbit, other than visually. You can bet that ground-based radar will be on alert and there will likely be 1 or more AWACS on station, but there isn't much else you can do to track them once they're airborne.

It's a good bet that there are assets on the ground, working to find these missing aircraft. Now is the best time to locate them and, if necessary, render them unflyable.