6 hours ago
This was an interesting one. There have been three F-15s, one with the California eagle on the tail, one OT ANG AFRC Test Center, and one ET tail code, flying out of Morris ANG Base at Tucson International Airport. What makes it interesting is that the Fresno bird has been carrying a new IR tracking camera that hasn't been seen before. It appears to be very similar to the ATIMS III camera system, but it's not identical. They're flying with AT ANG AFRC Test Center F-16s out of Morris, as well as a NASA F-18 that was seen carrying the camera 11/19. In that case, the camera set up was mounted facing the rear of the aircraft, while the F-15 is carrying it facing forward.
IR cameras, such as ATIMS III are used to test missile seekers, as well as track IR signatures of aircraft, which is one reason that they can be mounted either facing forward or rearward. There are multiple camera setups, some with multiple IR ranges, such as ATIMS III have a mid-range IR sensor, multiple seekers, a laser rangefinder, and a television camera. The TIGER pod has a long wave IR camera, IR tracking camera, laser rangefinder, television cameras, Mid-IR sensor, and a Mid-IR spectrometer. There are other pods, such as SATIRS, SARIS, BASE, and more.
It's not clear what is being tested in this instance, but they've been flying out of Tucson for about two weeks now. The NASA F-18 arrived last week, and has only flown one sortie so far, but a NASA Gulfstream III arrived today.
https://theaviationist.com/2024/11/20/f-15d-eagle-pod/
IR cameras, such as ATIMS III are used to test missile seekers, as well as track IR signatures of aircraft, which is one reason that they can be mounted either facing forward or rearward. There are multiple camera setups, some with multiple IR ranges, such as ATIMS III have a mid-range IR sensor, multiple seekers, a laser rangefinder, and a television camera. The TIGER pod has a long wave IR camera, IR tracking camera, laser rangefinder, television cameras, Mid-IR sensor, and a Mid-IR spectrometer. There are other pods, such as SATIRS, SARIS, BASE, and more.
It's not clear what is being tested in this instance, but they've been flying out of Tucson for about two weeks now. The NASA F-18 arrived last week, and has only flown one sortie so far, but a NASA Gulfstream III arrived today.
https://theaviationist.com/2024/11/20/f-15d-eagle-pod/
Logic is dead. Long live BS.
