Has anyone noticed a lot more armed services aircrafts around?!

[threetimesacharm]

I live rurally, nowhere near any bases and we’ve had two really low flying royal airforce aircrafts this week, never before. Seen a post on Facebook of someone elsewhere saying they’ve noticed similar. Just wondering if it’s a coincidence or if not what it’s all about? I panic about everything!

No. I live under a couple of flight paths into stansted which apparently is some sort of site for high security flights - stuff like international VIP’s or when suspect flights need to be escorted and haven’t noticed anything unusual. We’ve heard the sound barrier get broken from military planes flying over so I presume we’d notice an increase in exercises.

Yes, a Chinook flew over our house yesterday and we don't live here any air bases. I saw an Osprey (fancy US helicopter/plane thing) the other day too, but that was near a US air base.

There are lots of airshows at this time of year.

We get loads here, nothing more than normal but they seem louder due to having the windows open

Same amount as usual here .ie a few, but I live fairly near a military base. Not sure if it makes you feel better or not, but wars aren't generally fought like the Blitz any more. Far more likely to be fought via many avenues, e.g cyber, terrorism, food throttling, tactical nukes etc. I study this sort of thing as a hobby (I am sad)! On another note - please get help managing your anxiety, it can wreck your life and nerves otherwise. Helped me immeasurably to get it under control.

That was for an air show in blackpool

The plane / copter weird hybrid is an Osprey. Google them - they're fascinating!

Would it ease your anxiety if you looked on flightradar when you notice them? I have had loads of falcon aircraft flying over my house recently, nearly every day. When I look I can clearly see it must be practice as they fly round and round in loops before returning later either where they came from or from one base to another. I'm not close to any raf bases but the local naval college gets a few helicopters, there was a time when there were comings and goings every day, but it's been quiet for about a month now.

Same here. They did a display here. Was great sat in the garden with a beer watching them.

We are close to a Navy base, so there are quite a few aircraft flying around. Either them, the Air Ambulance or Search and Rescue.

We get a fair amount of military aircraft passing over/practising because of the bases further south, very often not on Flight Radar but you get to know the sounds.

The other week 2 F-15E Strike eagles came over, very low and quite slow, turned on their sides to face each other at one point (I'm sure there is a proper term for this!) Amazing. It was school kicking out time and they were all plodding down the road with the usual earbuds/phones/heads down, oblivious. I had to stop myself shouting "Look! Maverick!" at them

I think it is a sign of the time we are living in and when there is peace in Europe, the pressence of war planes may reduce.

The flight patterns seemed to change around Covid when less flights were going in and out of Heathrow, so the RAF started using the more direct flight paths across Heathrow airspace from Brize Norton and Northolt. As a result there was an apparent increase in RAF planes, but also more noticeable because there were less commercial planes. I can now tell the difference in noise between a commercial plane and an RAF one (the cargo sized planes), so I am more aware of them.

What is strange is that since Ukraine there has been a massive increase in what appear to be private jets going in to and out of Northolt. Not sure what that's about, or if it's just a coincidence.

We live on an army base adjacent to an RAF base. We had a really flurry recently with other nations show teams practicing and staying at the base. It’s been pretty average otherwise!

I noticed this at the start of the pandemic. I did wonder if it was the start of a Sci fi outbreak movie 🤣

In all seriousness I think it was more likely they were using our now less used local airport to run drills. Might be a perception kf seeing more due to Russia or they have changed training patterns for a completely benign reason.

It certainly it looked for a while as if some of RAF transport fleet were using the suddenly very quiet civil airfields for training in things like practice diversions and for performing instrument approaches. Now that civilian traffic has picked up I'm not sure as much spare capacity for doing so at those airfields will be available.

Objectively there is nothing like the amount of military low flying done over the UK these days compared with the amount that was done at the height of the Cold War, and because the low flying system has changed (generally expanded) over the years you no longer get the procession of low flying fast jets every 10-15 minutes for hours on end that you used to get when the flying was concentrated into smaller areas and on tighter routes.

We live in close proximity to two military bases and dc works in a civilian role at one of them. Nothing in the way of extra aircraft activity round here at all, in fact it is slightly quieter than usual.

@EarlofShrewsbury
"It's airshow season.
They've been cancelled the last two years due to covid so you've got used to not seeing them as much."

This.

Don't panic. If a war started then you wouldn't see them, they'd be off bombing P'yongyang or Moscow etc

Something not yet mentioned is that over the last 10 days or so, the winds have been east/northerly. The prevailing winds in the Uk are south-westerly. That means that at Heathrow, planes come in to land from the east, over London, and take off to the west, towards Windsor and Reading. For several days now, planes have been routing the other way. Therefore, the last few days have offered the RAF and other services the opportunity to practice approaches to airfields that they wouldn't normally do. A C17 has been doing approaches to Exeter. Normally they use runway 26 (approached over Honiton and Ottery St Mary) but last week, they were coming in over the city centre using runway 08. The local rag gets very wound up about it all, but it is just them practising and keeping their skills up.

The US military presence in Europe has been massively and steadily increasing ever since the invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops, apparently in their thousands, are currently training at various British military bases in England. It already feels like another global conflict is more than credible.

Exactly which should reassure OP.

Something not yet mentioned is that over the last 10 days or so, the winds have been east/northerly. The prevailing winds in the Uk are south-westerly. That means that at Heathrow, planes come in to land from the east, over London, and take off to the west, towards Windsor and Reading. For several days now, planes have been routing the other way. Therefore, the last few days have offered the RAF and other services the opportunity to practice approaches to airfields that they wouldn't normally do.

LHR on the "easterlies" isn't that uncommon, especially in summer, and AFAIK that doesn't drive adjacent airports into using other runways and it doesn't really free up airspace for others to use.

You are right though in saying that usually wind direction determines runway use, and if the UK has had a generally easterly flow then yes, you'll see and hear approaches being flown to the slightly less commonly used runways at many airports, such as you describe in the case of Exeter.

Yep. We live near US bases in a flat part of England. Lots more activity.

To some extent given the assets involved in the overwatch of events in eastern Europe there's going to be more activity at some USAF bases such as Mildenhall.

I wouldn't link that with hints of a further escalation.

We live in the same area, there’s always training exercises happening. The most recent one has been bigger with more forces/troops but it’s nothing unusual.