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Steffan Watkins Profile picture
@steffanwatkins
May 21 • 13 tweets • 11 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Scrolly
There's nothing that reinforces the stupidity of mankind like Facebook drama.

Two #USAF C-17 Globemasters (09-9212 #AE49C8 #RCH745 & 10-0214 #AE4D67 #RCH435) landed at in Calgary YYC and the USAF asked the Ground Handling Company to enforce a ban on pictures and video of the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… ImageImageImage
Our review starts on 2023-05-13 when #RCH435 took off from Charleston and flew to JBA. #AE4D67
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On 2023-05-14 #RCH705 departed Charleston heading NW, and #RCH435 departed JBA heading NW too.
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#AE49C8 #AE4D67 Image
#USAF C-17 10-0214 #RCH435 beat #RCH705 to South Korea, arriving on 2023-05-15 while 09-9212 was still somewhere around Alaska. Both are using Mode-S and ADS-C, not ADS-B. Image
#RCH705 arrived in South Korea on 2023-05-16. Image
#USAF C-17 09-9212 (now #RCH745) and 10-0214 (still #RCH435) arrived in Calgary #YYC #CYYC on 2023-05-17, and the USAF asked that nobody take any pictures. 😂

#AE49C8 #AE4D67 Image
After taking a whole day off, they departed on 2023-05-19 for JBA and Charleston.

NONE of that was a secret, none of it needed Facebook admin "moderation".

globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae49c8,a… Image
As I told Vice Motherboard's Ben Sullivan in 2017, Facebook is garbage for OSINT research collaboration. It's not just that I might not search and find the content, overzealous moderators will deliberately block your access to public information, as they did in Calgary on May 17. ImageImage
An American military VIP seems to have flown in on the day they were on the ground, which is not a regular occurrence and is likely related. Americans were training at Wainwright with the CAF, but why wouldn't they get picked up in Edmonton?

Also, if it was a big ammo shipment I'd expect it to go to CFAD Dundurn, I'm sure Calgary wouldn't be the most convenient drop off.
By the way, I'm guessing they kept on course and landed in South Korea. They appear to have gone out of MLAT range and were only picked up again flying toward Alaska when they left, then appeared near Calgary - there are gaps in coverage, but they certainly weren't shipping… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
They landed about a half hour apart on May 17 ~17:15Z/17:45Z which is just before noon, it couldn't have been a more noticeable landing.

I wonder how many pictures were taken of them from satellites as they passed over YYC? No, I don't mean our satellites. 😂 Image
#USAF C-37A 97-01944 #AE0405 bizjet landed about 24 hours later, which seems weird if it was a coordinated stop as #PAT94

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More from @steffanwatkins

Steffan Watkins Profile picture
May 19
Hasn't anyone thought about the implications of what the government admits to doing?

Forget that they factually, deliberately, stopped transmitting Mode-S/ADS-B to hide their "training" operations over Ottawa; what is their data retention policy, on the data they collected from… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Let's review the flight data that shows the arrival of American-registered N330TT #A3978A call sign CAVE033 operated by MAG Aerospace (per contract) from when they arrived in Ottawa on Tuesday January 25, 2022 from Hagerstown, Maryland - immediately before the arrival of the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
👇

Read 17 tweets
Steffan Watkins Profile picture
Feb 27
"China promptly issued a protest on Monday after a US Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane flew through the 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?
Very likely, yes. 👇

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
Steffan Watkins Profile picture
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
Steffan Watkins Profile picture
Feb 25
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-177 Globemaster III (4/5, 80% ✅)

‣ 177703 flew the 3rd shipment of armoured vehicles to #Haiti 🇭🇹
‣ 177703 flew supplies from #14WingGreenwood to Sicily 🇮🇹 for the pair of CP-140 Auroras deployed to Ex #DynamicManta.

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#8WingTrenton #429Sqn Image
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-150 Polaris (4/5, 80% ✅)

‣ 15001 is in #Hawaii for 🤷‍♂️ as call sign #CFC3120, via San Diego from Trenton.
‣ 15004 is in New Orleans for 🤷‍♂️ as call sign #CFC3133 from Trenton.
‣ 15002 is still at Mirabel.

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#437Sqn #8WingTrenton Image
🇨🇦 #RCAF CC-144C/D Challenger (3/4, 75% ✅)

‣ 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,c…
#412Sqn #8WingTrenton Image
Read 5 tweets
Steffan Watkins Profile picture
Feb 25
🇺🇸 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! 😎

I'm presuming the flight was conducted with journalists from multiple outlets simultaneously. (NBC, CNN, more?)
Read 14 tweets
Steffan Watkins Profile picture
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 🇦🇺 #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. 🤔
Then for the next #OpARGOS, 2021-02-24 to 2021-03-27 I can track ten sorties from #KadenaAB by 🇦🇺 #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

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