[AU] Light plane sparked terror alert

On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 07:55:16 +0100, "Keith Willshaw"
wrote:


"matt weber" wrote in message
.. .

That rather depends on what the intent of the intercepting aircraft
is. The cubans had little problem shooting down a couple of Cessna's
in 1996 as I recall. They had been detected on both Cuban and US
radar systems.
And both had their transponders turned on... It is easy when the
transponder is turned on. It is a cooperating target.

In fact both they and the Cuban Migs were tracked on primary radar
as testified to by radar specialist Jeffrey Houlihan of the U.S. Customs
Agency
who as usual was on the lookout for drug smugglers at the time.

Keith



And Migs did have their IFF on, and it is a safe bet the US knows how
to interrogate it, again, a cooperating target....

matt weber wrote:
"Keith Willshaw" wrote:

In fact both they and the Cuban Migs were tracked on primary radar
as testified to by radar specialist Jeffrey Houlihan of the U.S. Customs
Agency who as usual was on the lookout for drug smugglers at the time.

And Migs did have their IFF on, and it is a safe bet the US knows how
to interrogate it, again, a cooperating target....

Rest assurred, be it a drug runner in a Cessna or a Cuban in a
MiG, we have the means to keep an eye on the bad guys whether
they wish to "cooperate" or not.

I was having a few beers with a bud and he told me that while wearing
NVG's in his F-16, he slid up next to a smuggler flying a light Cessna
twin at night somewhere down in Central America.

Of course, the smugglers thought they were "incognito" simply because
they were cruising with their transponder and lights turned off...

They had nary a clue a Viper was escorting them all along.

-Mike Marron