Jim Cattanach

Two traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in an unusual
incident. Whilst checking for speeding motorists on the A1 Great North Road.

One of the officers (who was not named) used a hand-held radar device to check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 300mph. The machine then stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.
The radar had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado fighter jet over the North Sea, which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over the Border district.

Back at police headquarters the chief constable fired off a stiff complaint to the RAF Liaison office.

Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style. "Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactile computer in the Tornado had automatically locked on to your 'hostile radar equipment' and sent a jamming signal back to it.
Furthermore, the Sidewinder Air-to-ground missiles had also locked on to the target. Fortunately the Dutch pilot had responded to the missile status alert intelligently and was able to override the automatic protection system before the missile was launched".

warbird_1

My Feedback: (61)

hahahahahaha that was great

HarryC

My Feedback: (1)

This fictional story has been doing the rounds for at least 20 years, I heard it when I was in the RAF in the 1980s. That particular version is especially false since the Sidewinder is not an air to ground missile, being a heat seeker it can't lock onto radar gun, and the Tornado does not automatically launch them!
H.

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

Killjoy!

john agnew

Harry

Thanks for that! I think most of us know a Sidewinder is not a HARM air to ground missile but it still one of these good stories. Funnily enough I spent last weekend in North Berwick playing golf. Lots of speed cameras on the A1!

John

bidrseed2

My Feedback: (2)

On a similar vein, i was relayed a story one day by a tornado F3 navigator who told me while they were taxiing out one day they spotted the notoriously unpopular Military police setting up their brand new radar gun to catch the troops who had the audacity to do 31mph around the base. They happened to "switch" their radar on while it was pointing in the MPs direction, and after that, well the MPs shiny new radar gun was no more.

SECRET AGENT

My Feedback: (18)

All radar guns ever gave me was CANCER!