Steffan Watkins Profile picture
Feb 25 โ€ข 14 tweets โ€ข 6 min read
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Has anyone looked up the Mode-S of the #USNavy P-8 Poseidon used in this piece, and put together the timeline of this story yet?
Mike is on the case, zeroing in on the time, which is what I needed! ๐Ÿ˜Ž

I'm presuming the flight was conducted with journalists from multiple outlets simultaneously. (NBC, CNN, more?)
Okay, there were 3 transponders associated with US Navy P-8 Poseidons picked up by the #ADSBexchange network of receivers the vicinity of the SCS on 2023-02-24, and all three have been picked up in the vicinity of #KadenaAB ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ in Okinawa ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต lately.

#AE67DA
#AE67F8
#AE683D
Three US Navy P-8A Poseidon identified themselves with spoofed alternate Mode-S numbers than the aircraft were originally assigned, so there isn't just a 1:1 ratio of Mode-S/Registration pairing, making it harder to tell which one flew the mission; they call them "tactical" hexes
We can still track them, we just don't know which specific aircraft it was from their Mode-S transmissions.
#AE67F8 didn't seem to fly near the South China Sea, I didn't see any Mode-S hits anywhere near the SCS. They were presumably doing other things, departing ~01:00z and returning ~08:50z. (~7:50hr sortie)
#AE683D was picked up near Taiwan and The Philippines, they took off at ~00:45z and returned ~09:50z (9:05hr sortie)
#AE67DA departed last ~01:25z and returned ~9:20z (8:05hr sortie), and it's worth mentioning at 5:30z they were picked up near a receiver in proximity to Vietnam.
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ #USNavy P-8A Poseidon 169549 (normally #AE5F3E) was the aircraft they were seen boarding in the video (keen-eye Mike!)

I'm still not confident of which of the three spoofed "tactical" hexes were used for the flight - the PLAAF know, we don't. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ
I think this is Mike FTW; #AE683D was picked up near The Philippines and Taiwan between 06:40z-07:54z, which fits with a 07:38z interception of the destroyer.

Coming from the west we have #AE67DA that stayed in Taiwan's FIR, and coming from the South we have #AE683D, which is confirmation that the P-8A Poseidon using Mode-S AE683D is the one the journalists were on, based on Mike's video analysis. Image
Having more #ADSBexchange receivers along the coast of the SCS in Vietnam ๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ณ, Malaysia ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡พ, Hong Kong ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ฐ, the Philippines ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ญ, etc would really help the open source community track aircraft over the South China Sea.

๐Ÿ“ก ๐Ÿ“ก

โœˆ๏ธ

๐Ÿ“ก ๐Ÿ“ก

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More from @steffanwatkins

Feb 27
"China promptly issued a protest on Monday after a US Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane flew through theย Taiwan Strait"

Monday, their time, is still 2023-02-27, ie today.

Did anyone already identify which #USNavy Boeing P-8A Poseidon that was this morning?
So far there seem to have been five different #USNavy P-8A Poseidons that have taken off from #KadenaAB, 4 of which conducted operations near China today, using the following Mode-S numbers to uniquely identify themselves.

#AE67BE
#AE67DA
#AE67DC
#AE683D
#AE686A (unrelated)
Read 11 tweets
Feb 26
Are you familiar with how MLAT works? I have a dataviz/infographic/GIS visualisation challenge that I'm coming to the realization I do not have the skills to adequately convey in a graphic, and am looking for some help.
Basically, I'd like to show what Syria (say) would look like with a robust MLAT-gathering network of Mode-S receivers in an isometric 3D representation, showing overlapping coverage cones, and the density of receivers needed for border or nationwide MLAT, if that makes any sense.
I picked Syria because the coverage in that area of the world isn't robust and we miss a lot of the aircraft coming in and out of the country, as well as neighbouring Iraq and Turkey.
Read 14 tweets
Feb 25
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ #RCAF CC-177 Globemaster III (4/5, 80% โœ…)

โ€ฃ 177703 flew the 3rd shipment of armoured vehicles to #Haiti ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡น
โ€ฃ 177703 flew supplies from #14WingGreenwood to Sicily ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น for the pair of CP-140 Auroras deployed to Ex #DynamicManta.

globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c2b3ff,cโ€ฆ
#8WingTrenton #429Sqn Image
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ #RCAF CC-150 Polaris (4/5, 80% โœ…)

โ€ฃ 15001 is in #Hawaii for ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ as call sign #CFC3120, via San Diego from Trenton.
โ€ฃ 15004 is in New Orleans for ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ as call sign #CFC3133 from Trenton.
โ€ฃ 15002 is still at Mirabel.

globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c2b355,cโ€ฆ
#437Sqn #8WingTrenton Image
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ #RCAF CC-144C/D Challenger (3/4, 75% โœ…)

โ€ฃ The aircraft of 412 Transport Squadron are normally extremely busy, so a 3+ week break sticks out. 144618 must be working through some stuff.

globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=c2b369,cโ€ฆ
#412Sqn #8WingTrenton Image
Read 5 tweets
Feb 23
Very interesting; if I'm not mistaken the #AusAirForce changed their emissions posture vis-a-vis their transponder between their 2020 and 2021 #OpARGOS missions. In 2020, either they didn't fly, or they obfuscated their patrols sufficiently to avoid open source scrutiny.
From 2020-09-22 to 2020-10-24 ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ #RAAF P-8A Poseidon A47-010 #7CF9D4 was deployed on #OpARGOS, but they were never picked up using ADS-B flying any missions over the East China sea, only transits between bases. ๐Ÿค”
Then for the next #OpARGOS, 2021-02-24 to 2021-03-27 I can track ten sorties from #KadenaAB by ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ #RAAF P-8A Poseidon A47-010 #7CF9D4, all over the East China Sea by their ADS-B transponder - a much more neighbourly and less confrontational posture than not using ADS-B.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 21
Some git that moderates the @flightradar24 subreddit censored easily accessible publicly available information. ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™‚๏ธ
I'm going to need to tweet a lot more about the E-4, again, to raise awareness of their baseline, clearly! ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Read 4 tweets
Feb 21
Before I explain to the #AusAirForce ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ comms ppl, please appreciate that their P-8A Poseidon fleet broadcasts its own location to anyone who will listen, using ADS-B. That signal will geolocate them from orbit. On patrol, their locations are the least secret thing over the SCS.
This tweet, that has all the words in it you'd need to find it, gives you the tail numbers and ICAO Mode-S hexes of the whole #AusAirForce ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ P-8A Poseidon fleet. You can follow them pretty much any day with the link that's included in the quoted tweet.

On 2023-02-09 #AusAirForce ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ P-8A Poseidon A47-011 arrived at #KadenaAB ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on #Okinawa ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ตas call sign #ASY150.

globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=7cf9cb,7โ€ฆ
#7CF9D5
Read 19 tweets

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