The 'black' USAF C-32Bs

[pilotman6012]

The missions are all classified and mission specific,FEST(Foreign Emergency Support Team) or DEST (Diplomatic Emergency Support Team) made up of representatives of different agencies within the US Government depending on mission and what is needed,without going into specifics.

[Argus 01]

A few things I discovered in the past years combined with my opinion about these planes:

On 20-07-2016, 99-6143 visited RAF Leeming when Special Ops. exercise “Jaded Thunder” took place.
On 20-08-2016, 02-4452 visited Tblisi, Georgia when Special Ops. exercise “Jackal Stone” took place.
Given the fact that these machines belong to the 150 Special Operations Squadron, would speculate that they brought in some ConUS based special units/forces.

The C-32’s are also frequent visitors of Stuttgart, Germany. Home of US Navy Special Warfare Unit Two and the US Army 10th Special Forces Group (both responsible for US Europe and US Africa area of operations).
Most of the times when they come from ConUS, they fly to the Middle East. A few times they visited Cologne in Germany and some Eastern European countries.

Some C-32’s are in use by the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST). The FEST is a US Government short-notice team that responds to terrorist incidents worldwide (i.e. at US Embassy and existing US Missions). The short reaction times of these tasks can explain the AAR capability of the C-32’s.

The fact that they are changing serials and are complete white, can also mean that they are not wanted to be identified as military aircraft when on an airfield in a hostile area. That can also be the reason that they fly with full ADS-B switched on. Probably that would make them less spooky than when they fly just like normal military aircraft without broadcasting their position.

[tatoo]

00-9001 ching77 over netherlands from Edinburgh to east now over austria adsb

[Cavemonster]

Do we agree that 09001 and 24452, which usually operate from McGuire and are refuelling capable - or at least one is - do not normally engage in serial swapping?

It's those airframes that are based at Elgin/Duke/Crestview and Mobile that normally do (86006/96143/25001/N226G/N610G).

[n5205e00421]

Do we agree that 09001 and 24452, which usually operate from McGuire and are refuelling capable - or at least one is - do not normally engage in serial swapping?

Yep, while checking the antennae I could not find evidence of these two swapping serials. But in periods where they look the same externally it is hard to know for sure.

00-9001 Seems to have landed in Bucharest OTP now. It was only at 26000ft over Scotland so maybe it did some refuelling there, like 02-4452 did 12/08/2017 at a similar altitude over the UK going the other way.
Here somebody "saw" 00-9001 refuel in 2013: http://reachhuntersworldwide.blogspot.n ... ember.html

About the other, Eglin-based frames; I read somewhere that they have different door sills. I believe it is actually called a scuff plate but indeed N226G (and the McGuire-frames) has a larger protection plate below, and around the door. N610G only has a smaller one just below the door. See below, this applies to all six main passenger doors, both in the old and in the new colour schemes. Just some more circumstantial evidence that 98-6006/99-6143/02-5001 are the Comco-aircraft: they do change from small plates with the 12/19-window config, to big plates with the 13/17-window config...

And regarding the window-configs: According to seatguru the (12/19-window) Azerbaijan B757-22L fleet (N610G was never taken up) has toilets on both sides were the 13th window is plugged, and two equal, small toilets just behind the wing. A 12/17-window aircraft -I checked an Aer Lingus one- does not have toilets at the 13th window position and a larger toilet behind the wing on the left side than on the right side. The interior of the C-32B's must have been changed completely and they might have even removed the toilets, but this explains the different configs and makes it unlikely they regulary plug and unplug windows back and forth.

L.

[rh226]

Very interesting.

Regarding the possible 5th airframe in the equation - N144DC - I have looked at some pictures of its earlier identities (Eastern A/L's N501EA and NASA's N557NA) and they show it having the large wrap-around scuff plate. Which would mean that there is only one of the five airframes with a small scuff plate - N610G - and that one is at Brize Norton at the moment!!

Cheers,

Bob

[c32tracker]

Is 86006 still at Brize? I have a suspicion that 25001, 86006 and 96143 have all gone dark as there haven't been any tracks for any since 26 August. 25001 was last seen descending for TNX in the evening of 25 August and 86006 hasn't popped up since it landed at Brize. From my experience of observing their movements they rarely stay on the ground for more than an hour when away from base.

[michel N]

C-32B at Brize left yesterday evening

[Fishbed_9307]

00-9001 was clearly visible overhead Eindhoven minutes ago. It was coming from the north as Ching77.

Regards, Paul

[n5205e00421]

I have a suspicion that 25001, 86006 and 96143 have all gone dark as there haven't been any tracks for any since 26 August.

I had the same feeling but is seems there is something wrong with adsb-exchange; take any KLM aircraft and you'll find no history after 27 aug.

00-9001 today came from Tallinn; history visible on PlaneFinder. After a nightstop in Bucharest it flew to Dubrovnik on 31 aug, and from there to Tallinn on 1 sep.

Regarding N144DC, there is no other reason/evidence to believe it is involved other than that it is also registered to L-3 Capital in Montana. It would indeed look like N226G but it flew for NASA until 2009 when all the other serials had been around for years already. I think it is most likely not related, and just stored somewhere or even scrapped. But a confirmation of that wouldn't hurt.

L.

[c32tracker]

I have a suspicion that 25001, 86006 and 96143 have all gone dark as there haven't been any tracks for any since 26 August.

I had the same feeling but is seems there is something wrong with adsb-exchange; take any KLM aircraft and you'll find no history after 27 aug.

00-9001 today came from Tallinn; history visible on PlaneFinder. After a nightstop in Bucharest it flew to Dubrovnik on 31 aug, and from there to Tallinn on 1 sep.

Regarding N144DC, there is no other reason/evidence to believe it is involved other than that it is also registered to L-3 Capital in Montana. It would indeed look like N226G but it flew for NASA until 2009 when all the other serials had been around for years already. I think it is most likely not related, and just stored somewhere or even scrapped. But a confirmation of that wouldn't hurt.

L.

Ah, nice info on ADSBex, that would explain things. Well, I sourced some info via my contacts and 86006 did indeed go from BZZ yesterday evening back to POB via BGR.

25001 left TNX on the morning of 31 Aug to LSF (Lawson Army Field) then flew back to Eglin (VPS).

[c32tracker]

00-9001 was clearly visible overhead Eindhoven minutes ago. It was coming from the north as Ching77.

Regards, Paul

Tallinn to Las Palmas.

[c32tracker]

Can anyone make out callsign for 86006 into MacDill overnight? FUNNY59 perhaps? http://archive-server.liveatc.net/ktpa/ ... -0430Z.mp3. First contact at 11:38 mins.

[n5205e00421]

Sound like FUNNY59 indeed. 98-6006 Left to the northeast today(5sep) so we can maybe expect it over Europe again around 1400utc.

ADSBex history is working again without gaps. Over the last two weeks only 98-6006 and 02-5001 show activity. And 00-9001 and 02-4452 from McGuire.

Here 00-9001 landing at Las Palmas: https://www.facebook.com/MeloSpotters/p ... =3&theater

[c32tracker]

Sound like FUNNY59 indeed. 98-6006 Left to the northeast today(5sep) so we can maybe expect it over Europe again around 1400utc.

ADSBex history is working again without gaps. Over the last two weeks only 98-6006 and 02-5001 show activity. And 00-9001 and 02-4452 from McGuire.

Here 00-9001 landing at Las Palmas: https://www.facebook.com/MeloSpotters/p ... =3&theater

Nice info L . I caught RCH582 on Tampa Liveatc feed departing MCF at 0610z before heading out east over the sea so that is the callsign for it.

It's a pity there's no-one based near Eglin with a scanner as it would be useful to ID the callsigns when they come and go. I've noticed that 25001 uses SHARP callsigns a lot when it's doing local sorties/training flights but annoyingly rarely inputs them for ADS-B.