A Sample Feature From Aviation News

Balkan Real-time Reconnaissance

John Locker, a satellite TV monitoring enthusiast, reports on the amazing real-time images from US reconnaissance aircraft over the Balkans he started to see via his satellite receiver last November.

Above: A US Navy Lockheed P-3B Orion 153450 wearing the code 227 pictured at RAF Mildenhall on April 24, 2000. Devoid of squadron marks this aircraft belongs to a Patrol Squadron Special Projects Unit, VPU-1 based at NAS Brunswick, Me. The unit's aircraft are modified for intelligence gathering and it is possibly footage from their aircraft, flying from NAS Sigonella in Sicily, under the auspices of VP-5 detached there, that is being picked up. (Photo, Lindsay Peacock, via Bob Archer).

WHILE most people will be familiar with satellite TV via the likes of BSkyB, amazingly real-time footage from US reconnaissance aircraft over the Balkans is transmitted unscrambled using commercial satellites. If you think watching a live feed from a US Navy Orion in the comfort of your living room is your sort of viewing then read on...
Over ten years ago I was drawn to satellite TV monitoring by the promise of live coverage of Shuttle launches and other Nasa footage fed into Europe. I wasn't disappointed and have now amassed a library of hundreds of hours of raw Nasa material. But this is only a small percentage of the continual flow of information raining down on us from space, from outside broadcasts for popular TV programmes to reporters under fire in war zones, the action comes thick and fast. The military have their own constellations of satellites in orbit, the main players being the US, Britain and Russia, strategically placed to give extensive coverage of the globe. As a result, it is rare that military information is carried in the commercial band on a broadcast satellite. However, last year all that changed!

Real-time imagery from a Beech C-12 of buildings somewhere in the Balkans, as viewed by the author on his satellite receiver. (Photo, via author).

With the no-fly zone lifted, the P-3 captures a commercial flight flying over the Balkans. The camera used for this imagery is housed in a retractable turret under the nose. (Photo, via author).

It was on the evening of November 11 that I was alerted to a strange signal that had popped up over the Atlantic. My commercially available receiving dish was sitting at the eastern end of the satellite arc, 45§ east. It took about a minute to move round to the west where sure enough up came six channels. Four of them were carrying military identifiers and three were sporting live views of office-like clocks, reading 'Zulu' time. Even more unusual was the fact that the screen designated 'Predator UAV' had on the face of its clock an image of a Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle. If my hunch was correct, this could be military information passing through the satellite. The Predator screen was accompanied by others titled 'Airscan' and 'P-3 Serial Data'. It wasn't long before my concerns about what I was seeing were borne out.

Early on the second day of the broadcast the channels became active with air-to-ground imagery. First the 'Airscan' screen, followed by the Predator link which had had its title changed by now to 'C-12 MARS'. On screen details of the sortie were superimposed, similar to a Head-Up Display, with location, co-ordinates, height above mean sea level, target location and camera settings. The 'Airscan' screen aircraft was operating in the Skopje region, whilst the C-12 was further north around Sarajevo. Both would cruise at medium altitude in what appeared to be a race track pattern. As I monitored the 'Airscan' relay the wing mounted camera zoomed down on various buildings, scanning them in the Infra-Red spectrum. Occasionally, the image device would be repositioned to maintain sight of a target. In doing so the body of the aircraft came into view with the two man crew visible and I was able to identify it as a Cessna 337 Skymaster. By a stroke of luck the registration, N731AS, also came into frame and after a bit of investigation it turned out to be registered to a Titusville, Fla, based company called, yes, you've guessed it, Airscan. A contact in the USA confirmed that it was an independently run organisation which undertakes security work for Nasa, such as pre-launch airspace checks, and the US Department of Defense (DoD). The two other types of aircraft involved were definitely not civilian.

For the rest of this article please see the May issue..