Thread by @steffanwatkins

🇨🇦🇨🇴 Someone with better intel on Canadian-Colombian military relations might recognize what these flights are indicative of; I don't. Before I lose track of which Royal Canadian Air Force CC-130J transports flew to #Colombia in September for an exercise(?), lets document them.

First, remember that the RCAF CC-130H fleet stay at home like red headed step children; they do SAR and other domestic taskings. We just need to watch where the CC-130J fleet has been internationally.

🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J Fleet:
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Secondly, remember that a callsign stays the same for an entire mission; same callsign, same mission. Dropping off/picking up the same people, returning from dropping things off, or brining things back; it would all be one callsign.

Sequential call-signs are usually related too.

2021-08-25
🇨🇦 Two #RCAF CC-130J tactical transports (130605, 130610) flew together to Pennsylvania; to do so some low-level flying training in the mountains? 🤷‍♂️

#CFC2584 #CFC2585 #C2B553 #C2B585

2021-08-26
🇨🇦 Both CC-130J transports departed #8WingTrenton heading South the next day, and stopped at Miami International to refuel, and maybe pick-up/drop-off people or supplies. 130605 identified itself as #CFC2567 using ADS-B, 130610 used Mode-S and no callsign was broadcast

2021-08-27
🇨🇦 Both CC-130J transports arrived in #Colombia 🇨🇴

globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c2b585,c…

#CFC2567

2021-08-27 Meanwhile in Africa...

🇨🇦 RCAF CC-130J 130614 as callsign #CFC4036 arrived in Dakar, which itself isn't unusual, they have been ferrying UN, Canadian, and French troops around Africa pretty frequently.

2021-08-30
🇨🇦 RCAF CC-130J 130614 flew back to Dakar from Mali(?) having avoided detection on the way there. What's that callsign? #CFC2568 Only one off from the Colombia trip. What a coincidence. Clearly forces deployed in Mali wouldn't have anything to do with Colombia, right?

2021-08-31
🇨🇦 RCAF CC-130J 130614 callsign #CFC2568 flew to Lajes Air Base in the Azores 🇵🇹.
#C2B5AD

🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130605 was using patriotic callsign #MLSN24 while flying over #Colombia 🇨🇴 conducting operations or exercises, presumably with the Fuerzas Militares de Colombia.

2021-09-01
🇨🇦 RCAF CC-130J 130614 callsign #CFC2568 flew from Lajes Air Base to Halifax, and on to Trenton

🇨🇦 RCAF CC-130J 130610, which used Mode-S for the trip to Colombia, is now using #CFC2577 and ADS-B, for part of the trip in US airspace, and landed at Miami International.

2021-09-02
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130610, which used Mode-S for the trip to #Colombia, is still using #CFC2577 and ADS-B for the flight from Miami to #8WingTrenton.

2021-09-03
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130614, fresh from its return from Halifax the day before, conducted SAR, or maybe low-level training, near Toronto, over Lake Ontario.

🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130605 continued operations over #Colombia, near Bogotá, as #APOLO21.

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2021-09-08
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130615 flew from Trenton to Lajes Air Base as #CFC2578. 🤔

That's sequential from the flight from Colombia to Trenton days previous. Coincidence? 🤷‍♂️

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2021-09-09
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130615 callsign #CFC2578 arrived in Halifax from the Azores.

#C2B5B7
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2021-09-10
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130615 flew from Halifax to Orlando, FL to refuel and potentially drop-off/pick-up people or supplies. They flew South until we lost them when they switched to Mode-S from ADS-B and ceased to transmit their exact location.

2021-09-11
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130615 arrived in Colombia as #CFC2578.

2021-09-12
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130605 #CFC2567 and 130615 #CFC2578 departed Colombia together and flew to a small airstrip on the South side of Puerto Rico, where they landed, presumably refueled, and headed their separate ways; to Canada and... Texas? 🤔

2021-09-13
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130605 #CFC2567 returned to #8WingTrenton.

🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130615 #CFC2578 landed in Austin, Texas 🇺🇸.

2021-09-14
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130615, still the same callsign from their flight to Colombia #CFC2578 flew uncharacteristically low all the way from Austin to Leadville? then Colorado Springs? Stayed below normal cruise altitude (~16,500ft) until they left for Trenton at 29,000ft.

One week after this flight:

There was this flight:

Did Canadian Forces returning from Africa stay for a week of decompression in the Azores, and was the 2nd flight their ride home or to their next mission? That ride seemed to go all the way to Colombia. 🤔

As Rick pointed out, the Colombia exercise was Ángel de los Andes; so we have a timetable and pictures thanks to DVIDS. We also have photographic proof that the Canadians were there.

h/t @RCAF_ARC 👏; I couldn't find your media advisory about #ADLA21, eh.

🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-130J 130605 is featured in the DVIDS pics; there is no mention of this exercise from any @CanadianForces sources I've been able to find.
Why do I need to get RCAF info from foreign sources?
Why doesn't @RCAF_ARC hype this kind of cooperation?
dvidshub.net/tags/image/adl…

🇨🇦 The visit to The Azores? #ASAREX21, another multinational exercise that for some unknown reason DND Public Affairs didn't feel it necessary to share with the Canadian public. Why is that? Here's a video including RCAF pilot Capt Lively; from @hfxjrcc.

Nice patch!

You can see the whole video on DVIDS, with lots of other content there about the exercise too, that I can't find any mention of from public @CanadianForces sources, for some unknown reason.

dvidshub.net/video/812423/c…

🇨🇦 That's #RCAF #413SQN of #14WingGreenwood who was participating in #ASAREX21, BTW.

I'm not sure which squadrons participated in #ADLA21 in Colombia.

air-force.canada.ca/en/14-wing/ind…

🇨🇦 I'll go ahead and remind you all that every exercise and operation has a lot of paperwork, both before and after the event. The choice to use a passive media posture (ie, not engaging the media) was a conscious decision made in the planning phase.

#RCAF #ASAREX21 #ADLA21