Careful when using your personal radar system

A friend forwarded this to me. You might find it amusing -

Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved
in an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the A1
Great North Road. One of the officers 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 550 mph. Their radar
suddenly stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.
>
Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar
had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado fighter jet which was engaged
in a low-flying exercise over the Border district, approaching from
the North Sea.
>
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 tactical
computer in the Tornado had detected the presence of, and subsequently
locked onto, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a
jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, an air-to-ground missile
aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto
your equipment. Fortunately the pilot flying the Tornado recognized
the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile
systems alert status, and was able to override the automated defense
system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar
installation was destroyed.

Good Day..."

That is hilarious; thanks Bill.

Now that everyone is amused, here is the truth behind the story - http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/radar.asp

It's actually an urban legend that has been around for about 10 years. Still funny, though.

I wasn't amused, and I was disapointed by the snopes reply. The SNOPES respondent is obviously NOT a RADAR engineer, nor is he very knowledgable about aircraft nor military operations. This is the second very poor and perhaps incorrect snopes evaluation of a posting on this board.

Fighter Aircraft DO have automatic defense systems, but they have to be engaged and armed and they would not be while flying around a "home" civilian area, however when flying at tree top level radars are engaged in automatic flying and since radar is required for the safety of the aircraft, and because it COULD be targeted at low level while flying over a "home" civilian area, the electronic counter measures probably would be engaged and armed. So the opening scenario could be if fact the truth - the plane could and most probably DID "fire" on them, but with an electromagnetic weapon which fried their RADAR unit, thats what ECM is for...

The writing of a letter to the RAF could have happened and the RAF cold have responded tounge in cheek telling the bobbies they were lucky not to have been blown to bits, they may have been targeted.

The part about the pilot having to quickly over ride the weapons systems is bull...

thats 2 wrongs for snopes.
Jim

Even if it is a false story, it makes for a good read.

yeah thanks that was a god one.

I like Snopes. But I like the fighter story as well!