VISUAL AIRCRAFT RECOGNITION

The F-14, F-15 MiG-29 and Su-27 series all look a LOT alike in motion
to most people. MiG-21 and the F-4 look virtually identical in
flight.

OPEN THIS FILE AT HOME, NOT AT WORK!!!
MIKE

from Secrecy News www.fas.org

VISUAL AIRCRAFT RECOGNITION (FOUO)
More than 160 U.S. and foreign military aircraft are catalogued in a
U.S. Army manual which describes their distinctive physical
characteristics in order to permit visual identification of the
aircraft in flight. The manual is nominally a restricted document,
marked "for official use only," and it has not been approved for
public release. But a copy was obtained by Secrecy News. Proper
identification of aircraft is obviously a matter of military
significance. Incorrectly identifying a friendly aircraft (such as an
F-15 Eagle) as an enemy aircraft (such as a MiG-29 Fulcrum) in wartime
"could cause fratricide," meaning the destruction of friendly
aircraft, the manual states. Conversely, incorrectly identifying an
enemy aircraft (a Su-24 Fencer) as a friendly one (such as a Tornado)
"might allow a hostile aircraft entry into, or safe passage through,
the defended area." On the other hand, mistaking one type of hostile
aircraft (a Su-17 Fitter) for another type of hostile aircraft (a
MiG-21 Fishbed) would generally have "no impact" -- except "if
friendly countries were flying some aircraft types that are normally
considered hostile." Likewise, mistaking one type of friendly aircraft
(an F-4 Phantom) for another (an A-4 Skyhawk) would normally not be a
great problem unless "a hostile country was using an aircraft type
that is normally considered friendly." The manual covers both well-
known and relatively obscure systems, but does not include classified
aircraft. Although an earlier edition of the manual was published
without access restrictions, the current edition (2006) was not
approved for public release. But as the government imposes publication
restrictions on an ever larger set of records, the control system
seems to be breaking down at the margins, permitting unauthorized
access with increasing frequency. In this case, contrary to the
restriction notice on the title page, the document does not reveal
sensitive "technical or operational information." See "Visual Aircraft
Recognition," U.S. Army Field Manual FM 3-01.80, January 2006 (413
pages in a very large 28 MB PDF file): http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-01-80.pdf