More plane goodness...now with secret stuff!

Eilson is not just home to KC-135 tankers. They also have the super snooper version known as COBRA BALL, an airborne intelligence platform that, among other things, tracks missiles (ours and theirs). My first inclination was not to post on it so as not to give stuff away, but then when I saw all of the info on the internet about it, including stuff put out by our own Air Force, I figured that I wasn't going to be disclosing any national secrets...especially since they park it right outside where anyone driving by can see it "blending in" with all of the tankers.One of these things is not like the others...
Still, as we're driving by the fence doing police stuff, Tom says "Why don't you try to get a picture of that COBRA BALL aircraft? Just do it inconspicuously."
So I roll the window down and steady my camera on the door, and he says "Is that what you call inconspicuous?" So I had to take the pictures on the fly while pretending that I wasn't taking pictures.
I mean, Geez, man...if they didn't want it photographed, maybe they should have put a tarp over it, or just put it inside, you know? But they didn't. And here it is.

Pity I don't have a recording of Tom in the background predicting that we were both going to be in Gitmo for this. In fact, I've tried calling to tease him about his worrying, but every time I dial his number now, no one answers. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Ladies and Gentlemen...COBRA BALL!


Oh, and here's some F-16 fighters.
The lead two were taxiing as we were driving by. Very nice.