US plane landed at Shannon armed with weapon

donutheadhomer

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/us-plane-landed-at-shannon-armed-with-weapon-admits-gilmore-246664.html

What is wrong with this? We allow the planes to be full of soldiers carrying weapons so what is the difference with us being able to see the weapon.
Is it case of "out of sight, out of mind"

snubbleste

Because we have laws on this type of thing

Gatling

It could have been a machine gun where the **** do they find these quotes ,

For all we know it could have been a fuel drop tank on a wing or underneath an aircraft which could be mistaken for a weapon

aujopimur

It was a dry run to nuke Limerick.

aaakev

Shannonwatch sound like a bunch of residents association ****.....

o1s1n

Gatling wrote: »

For all we know it could have been a fuel drop tank on a wing or underneath an aircraft which could be mistaken for a weapon

I seriously doubt it. Airports tend to know what a fuel tank is.

I would say personnel/aircraft come through carrying weaponry all the time. Just in this case it happened to be seen.

donutheadhomer

Gatling wrote: »

It could have been a machine gun where the **** do they find these quotes ,

For all we know it could have been a fuel drop tank on a wing or underneath an aircraft which could be mistaken for a weapon

Well the report states that is was spotted by member of the Irish Defence Force - surely at least one of them would be able to identify a weapon - I hope anyway.

Thats not really my point though - why do we care - is it just because we can see the weapon? These planes are full of soldiers carrying weapons - big fuss is cos we see this one.

Gatling

snubbleste wrote: »

Because we have laws on this type of thing

I can see it now ,

Garda approaches the aircraft is this your vehicle sir ,
Pilot- no officer it belongs to my government and how do I contact them boi ,

Mint Sauce

Irish Neutrality means fcuk all really.

Muise...

aaakev wrote: »

Shannonwatch sound like a bunch of residents association ****.....

nope, Shannonwatch are our true Garda Síochána.

donutheadhomer

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Irish Neutrality means fcuk all really.

in name only really isn't it

What we can't see we can't object to


I've been in Supermacs in Shannon where they receive orders for 250 snack boxes to be delivered to some plane.

donutheadhomer

Muise... wrote: »

nope, Shannonwatch are our true Garda Síochána.

70 year olds climbing fences

Banjo String

We should declare war for this.

donutheadhomer

Banjo String wrote: »

We should declare war for this.

on who though?

GrumPy

aaakev wrote: »

Shannonwatch sound like a bunch of residents association ****.....

Fair play to them I say. It's shocking that this carry on happens. Ireland's "neutrality" is bollóx, and the government is crazy to let any US military aircraft use Shannon. Guns or no guns on board, military aircraft refueling is direct aid provided to the US to carry out military operations, in which Ireland has no business in.

If there is ever a terrorist attack on this Island, this will be the reason given as to why they decided to target the Irish nation.

Gatling

GrumPy wrote: »

Fair play to them I say. It's shocking that this carry on happens. Ireland's "neutrality" is bollóx, and the government is crazy to let any US military aircraft use Shannon. Guns or no guns on board, military aircraft refueling is direct aid provided to the US to carry out military operations, in which Ireland has no business in.

If there is ever a terrorist attack on this Island, this will be the reason given as to why they decided to target the Irish nation.

They pay to use the airport so what exactly is the problem,

Don't hear complaints about companies here building components for the weapons used on these aircraft

donutheadhomer

GrumPy wrote: »

Fair play to them I say. It's shocking that this carry on happens. Ireland's "neutrality" is bollóx, and the government is crazy to let any US military aircraft use Shannon. Guns or no guns on board, military aircraft refueling is direct aid provided to the US to carry out military operations, in which Ireland has no business in.

If there is ever a terrorist attack on this Island, this will be the reason given as to why they decided to target the Irish nation.

didn't we use the neutrality card to stop hitler/churchill refuelling subs in Ireland at one stage too.

Banjo String

donutheadhomer wrote: »

on who though?

Anyone. Hard to bate a good war.

donutheadhomer

Gatling wrote: »

They pay to use the airport so what exactly is the problem,

Don't hear complaints about companies here building components for the weapons used on these aircraft

Hitler might have paid too???????

tallaghtmick

aujopimur wrote: »

It was a dry run to nuke Limerick.

Nope Corkonians and their crazy Cork Republic idea. Those rebels will be wiped off the face of the Earth :mad:

donutheadhomer

Banjo String wrote: »

Anyone. Hard to bate a good war.

not mine but thats a different story

Ten of Swords

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Irish Neutrality means fcuk all really.

A report on Irish neutrality during World War 2 identified several breaches of neutrality, the most serious being the Donegal corridor

Gatling

donutheadhomer wrote: »

Hitler might have paid too???????

He probably would have ,sinn fein should have jumped and the chance of him coming here

hatrickpatrick

The fact that we allow them to use it at all is a national disgrace and one of the few things which makes me truly ashamed of my country.

Allowing both military and rendition flights to use Irish airports is the exact equivelant of allowing a gang to use your gaff as a safe house. :mad:

Muise...

Gatling wrote: »

They pay to use the airport so what exactly is the problem,

Don't hear complaints about companies here building components for the weapons used on these aircraft

the problem is our tradition of neutrality, or to be more precise, our tradition of constant war between ideals and realpolitik.

donutheadhomer

donutheadhomer wrote: »

Well the report states that is was spotted by member of the Irish Defence Force - surely at least one of them would be able to identify a weapon - I hope anyway.

Thats not really my point though - why do we care - is it just because we can see the weapon? These planes are full of soldiers carrying weapons - big fuss is cos we see this one.

We should at least spread this problem out. Dublin should have its fair share of these planes. Reeks of another "out of sight out of mind" - handy having these planes coming into Shannon out of the way in middle of the night. Why not land them in Baldonnell or DUB/Cork if its harmless.

Howard Juneau

GrumPy wrote: »

Fair play to them I say. It's shocking that this carry on happens. Ireland's "neutrality" is bollóx, and the government is crazy to let any US military aircraft use Shannon. Guns or no guns on board, military aircraft refueling is direct aid provided to the US to carry out military operations, in which Ireland has no business in.

If there is ever a terrorist attack on this Island, this will be the reason given as to why they decided to target the Irish nation.

If! there is ever a terrorist attack on this island?
Think we may have had one or two over the last 40 years & it's had nothing to do with American planes landing at Shannon

GrumPy

Howard Juneau wrote: »

If! there is ever a terrorist attack on this island?
Think we may have had one or two over the last 40 years & it's had nothing to do with American planes landing at Shannon

An attack from American enemies targeting us because of our role helping them at Shannon.

Gatling

GrumPy wrote: »

An attack from American enemies targeting us because of our role helping them at Shannon.

The tin foil brigade have been spouting that for the last 20 years

Geomy

aaakev wrote: »

Shannonwatch sound like a bunch of residents association ****.....

Usually its outsiders and a few rag tag crusties, that get involved in protests around Shannon. ..

seamus

donutheadhomer wrote: »

didn't we use the neutrality card to stop hitler/churchill refuelling subs in Ireland at one stage too.

If we did, it was because there was a world war going on at the time, so any assistance to any army would be seen as supporting them.

This is a little murkier because unless that aircraft was en route to a warzone to engage in active combat, you could argue that allowing them refuel is not supporting military action.

In reality this is a minor diplomatic incident, which as the article says was raised with the US embassy who investigated it. The very fact that it was detected and actioned goes to prove that US planes armed with weaponry are not routinely landing at Shannon. Chances are that someone just forgot this specific requirement of landing in Shannon (I imagine US pilots are used to just landing anywhere fully loaded without special permission), and then it was detected when they landed.

Neutrality is an ideal. In reality it requires concessions to enforce it. Either you heavily militarise in order to protect your borders or you unofficially keep other nations sweet and on your side.

Switzerland is the poster boy for neutrality, and I'm sure they would have presented a relatively tough fight for the Germans in WWII. But let's not forget the Nazi gold. Germany used Switzerland as their bank, which pretty much guaranteed Swiss safety.

That's not to say they were totally protected. Both sides in WWII basically ignored the Swiss legal rights over their own airspace and continually used it for bombing raids because they knew the Swiss had little air defences.

Neutrality it's a gentlemens' agreement that is ignored as soon as it becomes a hindrance.

crockholm

I'm ambivalent about it.Perhaps we have a common foe.

GrumPy

Gatling wrote: »

They pay to use the airport so what exactly is the problem,
Don't hear complaints about companies here building components for the weapons used on these aircraft

Agreed, you don't hear complaints - it's not an easy complaint to make really. With the way things are engineered these days, you could have something made of 10 components for example. Five of them are manufactured in Cork, the other 5 in China, and they are shipped to France for assembly - eventually ending up as some component in US military tech. To suggest Ireland, China and France have declared war on Iran because the US have, is a bit of a stretch.

The US Military is incredibly powerful beast and god knows what kind of exercises, missions, covert ops are carried out overseas that are being facilitated by Shannon allowing them to refuel.

Maybe I've been playing too many video games, but I still think it's bull**** that Shannon let's them refuel.

donutheadhomer

crockholm wrote: »

I'm ambivalent about it.Perhaps we have a common foe.

I'm really ambivalent regardless of the foe. This is going on anyway in Shannon - why care if we see weapons or not. Does it being overt make it worse?

GrumPy

Gatling wrote: »

The tin foil brigade have been spouting that for the last 20 years

True! I don't consider myself a member, but maybe I have been playing too many Tom Clancy video games over the years...

Ten of Swords

The aircraft in question was a Spectre. It landed on September 5th and left on September 6th.

Visually a Spectre is very similar to a military transport aircraft but they are heavily armed.

donutheadhomer

Ten of Swords wrote: »

The aircraft in question was a Spectre. It landed on September 5th and left on September 6th.

Visually a Spectre is very similar to a military transport aircraft but they are heavily armed.

is it that thing on the far left that caused all the bother?

Ten of Swords

donutheadhomer wrote: »

is it that thing on the far left that caused all the bother?

No, the massive auto-cannon sticking out of the side of the plane behind the landing gear.

The plane is designed to provide precision strikes on armoured targets from high altitude, ie. it's a tank buster.

seamus

Ten of Swords wrote: »

The aircraft in question was a Spectre. It landed on September 5th and left on September 6th.

Visually a Spectre is very similar to a military transport aircraft but they are heavily armed.

Would I be right in thinking that a C-130 pilot could pilot one of these with little or no training, and so could easily forget when approaching Shannon that they're flying an armed aircraft?

donutheadhomer

Ten of Swords wrote: »

No, the massive auto-cannon sticking out of the side of the plane behind the landing gear.

The plane is designed to provide precision strikes on armoured targets from high altitude, ie. it's a tank buster.

thats an issue around shannon all right

o1s1n

Banjo String wrote: »

Anyone. Hard to bate a good war.

Bate? Is that shorthand for masturbate? You fap to war? :pac:

donutheadhomer

o1s1n wrote: »

Bate? Is that shorthand for masturbate? You fap to war? :pac:

and u don't?

kippy

GrumPy wrote: »

Fair play to them I say. It's shocking that this carry on happens. Ireland's "neutrality" is bollóx, and the government is crazy to let any US military aircraft use Shannon. Guns or no guns on board, military aircraft refueling is direct aid provided to the US to carry out military operations, in which Ireland has no business in.

If there is ever a terrorist attack on this Island, this will be the reason given as to why they decided to target the Irish nation.

Nope.
1. We've had plenty terrorists attacks on this island (more than the vast majority of nations) and at no point has our pseudo neutrality been given as the reason for ANY of them.
2. WHEN there is ANOTHER terrorist attacks on this island the likelihood will be it will be because of the same reasons as the previous terrorists attacks we have had -(Idiots with scant regard for human life or the wishes of the majority)

3. If for some reason another group use this as an excuse for terrorist attackts on this island, one cannot blame the state for its decisions or the US for theirs. One blames the terrorists.........any other logic is completely flawed.....

This is weird. Do they mean that the plane was carrying weapons, the soldiers were carrying weapons, or that the weapons on the plane were armed/live?

donutheadhomer

Deleted User wrote: »

This is weird. Do they mean that the plane was carrying weapons, the soldiers were carrying weapons, or that the weapons on the plane were armed/live?

assuming the planes always carry the weapons but this time they were obvious

GrumPy

kippy wrote: »

Nope.
1. We've had plenty terrorists attacks on this island (more than the vast majority of nations) and at no point has our pseudo neutrality been given as the reason for ANY of them.
2. WHEN there is ANOTHER terrorist attacks on this island the likelihood will be it will be because of the same reasons as the previous terrorists attacks we have had -(Idiots with scant regard for human life or the wishes of the majority)

3. If for some reason another group use this as an excuse for terrorist attackts on this island, one cannot blame the state for its decisions or the US for theirs. One blames the terrorists.........any other logic is completely flawed.....

Specifically, I was talking about a potential attack from America's enemies - targeting us because of our role helping them at Shannon.

Obviously the terrorists are at fault always. I don't dispute that. I just think it's mad assisting US military operations and I don't agree with it.

kippy

GrumPy wrote: »

Specifically, I was talking about a potential attack from America's enemies - targeting us because of our role helping them at Shannon.

Obviously the terrorists are at fault always. I don't dispute that. I just think it's mad assisting US military operations and I don't agree with it.

Ah ok,
America's enemies............

Terrorists will use and find any excuse that fits their warped sense of justice/morality. We've been helping the yanks for years in many ways, and rely on them for a hell of a lot. Terrorists don't need to use Shannon as an excuse, all they need do is look at the amount of American multinationals here and see us as an offshoot of the states......if they so wish to use that logic.

Tzardine

Everybody calm down, it was just Chuck Norris on board.

gerryvee

Full details and analysis here: http://www.shannonwatch.org/blog/minister-confirms-fixed-weapon-us-aircraft-shannon

Captain Chaos

donutheadhomer wrote: »

is it that thing on the far left that caused all the bother?

It's the 25mm gatling gun, 40mm auto cannon and 105mm heavy cannon all sticking out the left side of the aircraft. One of them can do a massive amount of damage day or night. There is plenty you youtube vids of them in action, killing personal, destroying SAM sites, trucks, pickups and demolishing suspect buildings.

magicman88

http://youtu.be/nfK9UPEQavo