Anyone see the U2s this morning ?

[satcom]

Two U2s sailed over the top this morning on there way into Fairford.
The second was tracked down the coast OTT WAL , but of course it was totally overcast.
He stayed at FL600 until just N of the Wirral then started his descent.

Around the same time a QRA asset VC10 went north a little to the east of the zone on its way to support a N Sea intercept of two Russian bears.

This was the second QRA in as many days.
Yesterday the Russians flew a little further north on their sight seeing trip.

Here's the U2 track...

[Deleted]

Fascinating stuff, satcom. I did hear something noisier than usual at around 1015 (I think), so it could have been the -10. No doubt sent up to support the thirsty beasts which went to investigate the Bears. Probably just the Russkies checking to see if we'd scrapped any of our front-line kit yet! (Actually, they probably knew about the U-2 movement and wanted to have a look).
The positioning of the Puma as the U-2 turns onto finals is interesting too. Is the U-2 movement a change-over?

[satcom]

Yes this is a standard rotation with the two incoming deploying to theatre , then the two out there will return stateside via Fairford

As the U2 passes over Wirral you can also see an outbound Beluga , possibly the one photographed
by Silverback at 0910 GMT.

[LPL]

Whats the tracking program used there?

[owensy]

PlanePlotter I think?

[mersi]

Very interesting stuff that.

Cheers satcom .