Strange object followed by Jet

The other day 01/06, I was driving on the A11 near Thetford, this area has a few RAF bases so it's not uncommon to see military aircraft.

At around 17:26 i spotted the following which i assume is a V-22 Osprey or something similar, coming from the direction of RAF Honington:



I then went indoors for an hour to finish a job in Thetford before starting the journey back home. Right around the same area at 18:43 i spotted these two jets, really low and coming from the direction of RAF Lakenheath. At this point i'm intrigued as it's not often you see them so low or close to the main road:



So, while driving at 70mph i'm trying to have a look around without ending up in a ditch and i notice what appears to be another jet however as i get closer i start to wonder as it appears to be cloaked or distorted by the cloud cover, i tried snapping it but i couldn't get a good view due to the trees, again this is from the direction of RAF Honington:



The people i showed this to so far all day "it's a cloud", i can assure you it was moving way faster than the clouds. I tried to take pictures as it passed overhead and on other side of road but due to my direction of travel and trying not to crash i missed it.

However only a few seconds later i spotted this jet flying directly into the path of where i took the picture of the "object", it appeared to be banking toward the same direction of travel as the "cloaked" aircraft.



Anyway, thought i'd share my plane spotting with the forum, i travel this road quite a lot and by far the busiest i've ever seen it for air traffic.

Can someone identify the jets?

a reply to: Grenade

The quality on my iphone shows them all in much better detail, i'll try and upload the zoomed images without losing quality to compression.

a reply to: Grenade

I think the jets are F-15s. That type operates out of RAF Lakenheath.

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

They are. Which means they weren't chasing any object, because they don't do that mission in the UK. They're also E models, which don't do any kind of Alert mission, even in the US. All the C/D, air superiority versions have left Europe permanently.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thanks Zaph.

Cheers

a reply to: Zaphod58

Maybe some kind of helicopter obscured by the clouds?

I didn't get a good look if i'm honest, just seen it moving behind the trees and took snap once i hit a small clearing.

Are they used solely for training now?

a reply to: Grenade

The F-15s? No. They are still active in combat. The C/Ds are slowly being removed and replaced with other aircraft. The E will still be around for awhile. It’s one of our bigger tactical strike aircraft.

It could have been a helicopter that was obscured.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Cool, in an alert situation what would we scramble to intercept? Sure i've see a few F-35 looking jets around there, so assuming them?

Until now i didn't even realise how many bases the US operated in the UK. Not sure if it makes me more or less comfortable.

There's probably more US fighter jets on British soil over our own RAF.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: Zaphod58

Maybe some kind of helicopter obscured by the clouds?

I didn't get a good look if i'm honest, just seen it moving behind the trees and took snap once i hit a small clearing.

Are they used solely for training now?

It almost looks like a shadow of one of the jets on the cloud.

a reply to: Grenade

The UK would use Typhoons belonging to the RAF.

a reply to: Grenade

Until now i didn't even realise how many bases the US operated in the UK. Not sure if it makes me more or less comfortable.

An old joke was the "nervous look" of the sheep around RAF Croughton.

Cheers

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

They are. Which means they weren't chasing any object, because they don't do that mission in the UK. They're also E models, which don't do any kind of Alert mission, even in the US. All the C/D, air superiority versions have left Europe permanently.

Is it possible they just happened to be in the air training when the object was spotted, so they were asked to go take a look at it?

a reply to: Zaphod58

How would that work if say there was a threat near Lakenheath? From what I understand that base only has US fighter wings. Do the RAF need to approve any and all traffic from US bases or have to put in a request before the US could scramble jets?

Sorry for all the questions, only just started taking an interest in aviation and you seem to be the man with the knowledge.

Thanks

a reply to: face23785

Possible, but unlikely. I don’t believe the SOF Agreement allows for that.

a reply to: network dude

Wasn’t moving as fast as the jets but still travelling at a fair speed. Was strange looking and almost triangular from my view, again could have just been a case of the clouds, lighting and perspective confusing my eyes but it was strange enough for me to try and snap it.

a reply to: Grenade

Lakenheath doesn’t keep any armed jets, except for very specific conditions. And being F-15E models all those situations involve air to ground weapons.

Every country the US has basing agreements with has a Status Of Forces Agreement that outlines what those forces can and can’t do while they are there. The host country is responsible for defense of the airspace. By the time US aircraft could be armed and launched, whatever was going on would be long over and done with. From a cold start, it can easily take two hours to complete arming, depending on the load.

Interesting fact about Lakenheath and Mildenhall, they’re still RAF bases, that are leased to the US. A lot of US bases in foreign countries have both a local and US base commander.

a reply to: Zaphod58

So these US bases are purely strategic and offensive in nature? I guess that’s why they have F-15E and F-35 stationed there, if say the US decided to launch an offensive mission from UK soil I’d assume that would need approval from the RAF?

Thanks for the info, quite an interesting rabbit hole and insight into how the airforce works.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Used to be some nice British-run pubs on those bases.

One phrase came to mind regarding U.S. intercepts in British airspace: quid pro quo

My experience dealing with Allied countries is that EVERYTHING is quid pro quo. Not sure how one would assess a quid pro quo for such actions; far easier to let the RAF handle it themselves unless it was a response to an attack.

Cheers

originally posted by: network dude

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: Zaphod58

Maybe some kind of helicopter obscured by the clouds?

I didn't get a good look if i'm honest, just seen it moving behind the trees and took snap once i hit a small clearing.

Are they used solely for training now?

It almost looks like a shadow of one of the jets on the cloud.

You poor rube. Don't worry, we've all been there. Let me tell you, as a seasoned conspiracy theorist myself, where you've gone wrong.

What appears to be shadow is just an object passing through the sun's rays, it causes a dark area some conspiracy theorists mislabel as a "shadow". It's just a trick of the light! Science has never actually proven shadows exist, but they hope to measure them someday.

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