Aid by force

[AeroplaneDriver]

I'm watching the evening news at the moment, and the lead story was about Myanmar's refusal to allow foreign aid in ot typhoon victims.  Apparently the UN are considering sending the aid regardless of the Myanmar dictatorship's refusal.  The story opened up some interesting whif possibilities...

USAF F-16s and F-15s carrying AMRAAM, Sidewinder and HARM escorting airdrop C-130s into Myanmar airspace painted white?  light blue?  red crosses?  light blue crosses on white?

I think it would send quite a message to say 'We are coming in with supplies to save your people.  We have no intentions beyond that, allow our flights to operate....or else"

So without political commentary, how would you paint and equip the air arm of Operation Angel?

[sotoolslinger]

How about bright silver with the symbology a big hand shooting the bird for the Americans and the Churchhill veversed v for the Brits. They probably wouldn't need very many escorts, how big an air force or aaa capability can Burma have?

[AeroplaneDriver]

How about bright silver with the symbology a big hand shooting the bird for the Americans and the Churchhill veversed v for the Brits. They probably wouldn't need very many escorts, how big an air force or aaa capability can Burma have?

Well according to the fine folks at wikipedia, it's not the best equipped in the world, but not exactly the kind of airspace to send unprotected transports into either if the government threatens action against them.  At least 12 MiG 29s and a modern air defence network apparently....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar_Air_Force

[sotoolslinger]

Who woulda thought, the folk live in huts but the gov't owns Mig 29's.  I wonder if the airfields survived the cyclone?

[Maverick]

Sotool, it's an unfortunate situation that most countries that have desperately poor living conditions for their populace, have a standing army (frequently well fed), an air force of some description and if they're anywhere near the sea, a navy.

Whilst I can feel for the ordinary people involved in these situations, I find it gallling that these nations expect the West to give them aid and yet still have the sort of military hardware that is obviously costing some fairly substantial change.

Regards,

Mav

[AeroplaneDriver]

Alright fellas, keep it light.  I just thought it would be interesting to see some military iron in colors to enforce a humanitarian action.  Any ideas?  Tornado EF.3 with a UN blue tail?

[sotoolslinger]

Well heck it's hard to keep it light in a situation like this but has anyone actually thought about using the Peace symbol as an aircraft marking? Does anyone know the backstory on the standard hippie peace symbol . Is it universal or does it mean something offensive in other cultures?  If you want to keep it real light how about  pink airplanes with big  symbols.

[GTX]

Does anyone know the backstory on the standard hippie peace symbol . Is it universal or does it mean something offensive in other cultures?

See here:  http://www.peacesymbol.com/  for the background.

Regards,

Greg

[ytown2010]

hows about white for the UN airlifters and for the jets, maybe stripes on the wings (like D-Day "invasion" stripes)? white and blue or white and black?

[sotoolslinger]

I still like the peace symbol although I'm not sure it would translate to Burma. Isn't white the color of death in Asian cultures?

[AeroplaneDriver]

I'll venture dangerously close to politics by saying that I dont understand why invading a generic middle eastern country to supposedly give the people a better life is OK, but not a country that actively denies help and aid to its people after a major natural disaster.  If something doenst change in the nest few days if not hours there could be hundreds fo thousands of lives lost.

Oh well...enough of that business or I'll end up having to lock this.  Move along, nothing to see here.

Back on topic:

I do love the idea of UN color invasion stripes!  good one! 

The peace sign soundsa bit too hippie to me.  I like the idea of a pale blue cross on a white aircraft, though I dont know if that would raise objections from aid agencies or wold have negative religous connotations in the region.  After all this brainstorm session is built around helping people, even if that means using force to defend aid shipments, it is not about war with Burma.

[Amphion]

Well, using aircraft (helos, transports or fighters) in the service of UN is nothing new. Actually it's an ongoing thing.

Here's an example of how markings been applied to fighters, namely the Swedish J29 Tunnan in Congo (1961):











And F-86 from Imperial Iranian Air Force, also in Congo:

[RP1]

ISTR my trusty Eurofighter in TFX had a UN symbol on the tail... but I suspect that doesn't show up well at a distance.  Allthough concise, something has to be better than "UN";-  un-what? ;-)

[Brian da Basher]

Let's keep this thread on track and watch out language as some youngsters visit this site.

Now back on topic:

I like the idea of blue and white D-Day stripes. Maybe the U.N. symbol in blue on a white disk too.

Any other thoughts?

Brian da Basher

[Maverick]

A question comes to mind with the whole 'UN' markings thing.  Why white?  If it's for hi-viz surely dayglo yellow or orange would be more noticeable (& quite a bit less bland if'n ya ask me!)

Regards,

Mav