Quote:
Originally Posted by justplugit
If your recollection allows, did they call Turkey, where we have bases,
and at 1300 miles from Libya would be less than an hour for a jet fighter ?
Can't believe there wasn't one plane , if not readied, could be readied in
short time.
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Anything at 1300MPH has just a few minutes of fuel. Reasonable cruise speeds are 440-520 knots for F15/16/18 type aircraft NOT loaded down with ordinance (F18 probably has to start flying backwards due to canted tanks and racks but I digress). A10s and AC130s are in the high 200/ low 300 kts range. In my earlier examples F15s from UK and Incirlik, B1s from PG area are the extreme ranges of what is remotely possible assuming early notification, some reasonable alert status, and a State department on the ball. The just mentioned three are not very likely.
And forget about drones - Predators are around 100kts (and don't have the range. The rumored Predator must have already been on station for other purposes - unless it was another drone (Reaper or GH) which had longer range and could have been further out.
From a realistic view only Aviano and Spangdelham (an extra hour in just flight time) were practical and it would need to have some level of alert status, available tanking, host nation permission, and some luck - oh and a properly operating State department. The guys on the ground would move heaven and earth for these people if the information was known.