306 - Flying the RC-135S Cobra Ball

omega tau - English only

• Episode: 306 - Flying the RC-135S Cobra Ball
• Website: omega tau - English only
• Feed URL: http://omegataupodcast.net/englishOnly.php
• Duration: 01:33:30
• Published: 2019-03-09 10:45

Throughout the cold war, and til today, the Cobra-codenamed ground, sea and air assets have been used by the US to monitor Soviet/Russian ICBM missile launches and warhead reentries. The air component consists of the RC-135 Cobra Ball/Eye aircraft. Flying from Shemya in the Aleutians they used cameras and other sensors. Our guest, Robert Hopkins has been flying the aircraft in the late 1980s. In this episode he tells us about the mission and the flying -- Shemya could be quite challenging.