Lots of military activity

[Knocksomesense]

This past 4 or 5 days military flights overhead have increased 10 fold. The chinooks are still going over now despite it being nearly 11pm.

Aibu to think it's weird?

I'm not saying it's covid related but the last time we had high levels of military air activity was around the beginning of lockdown/just before. We are getting similar levels again now.

5 overhead since 11pm

Are you near a military base?

They will be doing training. I wouldn't worry about it.

I live near an air base and we occasionally get busy nights. They do a lot of training. I wouldn't think it's anything sinister to be honest.

I'm not worried. Its just fascinating. We are inbetween a couple of bases if you draw a line, I guess. But yes, about 20 miles away is a base

The RAF has been doing night time training with Chinooks all the way through lockdown, particularly in the south where air traffic is way quieter than normal even now. There are Chinooks out of Odiham over Hampshire right now, and Chinooks and Lynxes over Somerset. The RAF and USAF are also using the quieter skies to do low flying practice with Herculeses during the day. The RAF ones tend to fly out of Brize Norton and the USAF out of Mildenhall. A lot of the really low flying is done over water but they also train over rural land terrain. They're bloody noisy when they get down to about 250 feet!

@NudgeUnit really interesting, thanks. Yes, I think they would be flying out of Odiham. They were certainly very busy last night

Summer training season, it always happens.

A lot of training was cancelled in April/May. (Urgent training still went ahead) Since regular training recommenced a few weeks back, they are playing catch up.

It has to be dark for night flying training, so obviously that happens a lot later in the summer than it does in the winter. Nothing sinister going on, don’t worry!

I would expect a lot of training over the next couple of months. They need to ‘use up’ their flying hours and track mileage or they won’t get it next year. The Military would have had overseas & local training postponed during lockdown and need to catch up

We’re not near a military base but have seen an increase in military aircraft overhead, I’ve put it down to quieter skies and they’re taking advantage to train more.

Yes lots of catch up going on. My OH is I another part of the military but all training that got cancelled during lockdown is going ahead for him now