Police "shot" at by RAF Jet

[bodgit]

Two members of the Lothian and Borders traffic police were out on the Berwickshire moors with a radar gun recently, happily engaged in apprehending speeding motorists, when their equipment suddenly locked-up completely with an unexpected reading of well over 300 mph.
The mystery was explained seconds later as a low flying Harrier hurtled over their heads. The boys in blue, upset at the damage to their radar gun, put in a complaint to the RAF, but were somewhat chastened when the RAF pointed out that the damage might well have been more severe. The Harrier's target-seeker had locked on to the 'enemy' radar and triggered an automatic retaliatory air-to-surface missile attack.
Luckily(?) the Harrier was operating unarmed.

[niggs98]

old ones are always the best

[stegger]

shame it wasn't armed

[bigred5765]

are you sure it wasnt lee mag in his new toy??lol

[Lee]

I have actually been done by the lothian police force, i cant remember the cuntstubbles name but he said it was a shame i hadn't been drinking the night before, i didnt know how to take that

Anyway i contested it, i got an extra point and an extra £80 fine

[i4n]

The RAF police did the same to a Tornado over in Germany when things were kicking off with the Russians, the only trouble was that the jet thought it was being locked onto and started to deploy chaff and flares!

[racingdwarf]

I worked for John Deere a few years ago, heard of the same sort of thing with Apatche choppers targeting tractors working at night in norfolk,Did loads of damage to the farms £100.000+ tractor took ages to work out what was going on.

[glypo]

A lot of inconsistencies in the statement, so not true (doubt anyone thought it was), but funny none the less.

And aircraft will never release a weapon without a persons authorisation. But for sure, a military aircraft with a capable systems might be likely to pick up a system, and alert the pilot.

[terry.sc]

The old ones are the old ones...
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/radar.asp

[ashleyb4]

They proberly saw it and thought aawww lets see how fast that is going.

A

[i4n]

Glypo,

You are correct, any weapons release from a UK military aeroplane has to have a human input into it (well, they did when I worked on them, not so sure about the Typhoon) but as for self defence mechanisms, that is another matter altogether!

The Jaguar Electronic Counter Measures pod was particularly good at overpowering TV transmissions if it was on when it flew over houses........

[glypo]

Self defence in terms of jamming, flares, chaff etc, yes for sure these kind of things are automatic.

No weapon is or will ever be automatic though, always a person involved. The moral and ethical implications are mad otherwise. Contrary to popular opinion the military, and the companies involved in the creation of these devices, are very careful about these kind of issues.

[i4n]

Yeah, the top brass always like someone to blame when it all goes wrong too!

[bodgit]

Originally Posted by glypo

Self defence in terms of jamming, flares, chaff etc, yes for sure these kind of things are automatic.

No weapon is or will ever be automatic though, always a person involved. The moral and ethical implications are mad otherwise. Contrary to popular opinion the military, and the companies involved in the creation of these devices, are very careful about these kind of issues.

must mention this to all our lads families killed by the yanks friendly fire

[gramey]

Originally Posted by bodgit

Two members of the Lothian and Borders traffic police were out on the Berwickshire moors with a radar gun recently, happily engaged in apprehending speeding motorists, when their equipment suddenly locked-up completely with an unexpected reading of well over 300 mph.
The mystery was explained seconds later as a low flying Harrier hurtled over their heads. The boys in blue, upset at the damage to their radar gun, put in a complaint to the RAF, but were somewhat chastened when the RAF pointed out that the damage might well have been more severe. The Harrier's target-seeker had locked on to the 'enemy' radar and triggered an automatic retaliatory air-to-surface missile attack.
Luckily(?) the Harrier was operating unarmed.

Load of bo**ocks, as pointed out by others, hand held radar guns can only measure speeds up to 199 mph so any claim of reading of 300 mph is total fiction