The research in this feature is the latest update from Dan Dowling of Shannonwatch.

Compiling records of military aircraft identifies British Army surveillance.

This map  shows seven days of all military aircraft around the world. Each dot on the map yileds the ICAO code of a military plane or helicopter, the army it belongs to, and the day it was recorded.

This map is interactive so it can for example filter out just USA aircraft

Ireland

This video is just a guide, I focus on British Surveillance after about five minutes. British surveillance is being conducted by Britten Norman Defenders and helicopters. At least two planes were recorded yesterday, August 4th.

These planes have an electro-optical turret under the nose – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britten-Norman_Defender

These planes are used in Iraq – https://web.archive.org/web/20110417211226/http://www.spyflight.co.uk/defender.htm

The Britten Norman Defenders are army aircraft not police aircraft.

http://www.ads-b.nl/index.php?pageno=3001&checkcountry=United%20Kingdom&checktype=BN2T

These planes fly and at low altitude and too frequently to still be in testing. There are hundreds of records in the links below.

Example One ZH001

August 4th https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/map?icao=43C2B7&date=2019-08-04

All Records https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C2B7

When using all records the most recent records are at the top of the page.

There may be records for as far back as January 2018.

Open a link to see the flight path of the plane. (It is a good idea to use right click to open.)

A typical example May 29th 2018

Example Two ZG845 August 4th

August 4th  https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/map?icao=43C385&date=2019-08-04

All records  https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C385

This is not a comprehensive list of the 2019 British Army surveillance fleet.

Registration Species Last Date in 2019
XZ290 Aerospatiale Helicopter August
ZG669 Aerospatiale Helicopter August
ZH001 Britten-Norman Defender AL.2 August
ZH003 Britten-Norman Defender AL.2 August
ZH005 Britten-Norman Defender AL.2  August
ZG845 Britten-Norman Islander AL.1 August
ZH004 Britten-Norman Defender T.3  July
ZG848 Britten-Norman Islander AL.1  July
XW847 Aerospatiale Helicopter June
ZG997 Britten-Norman Defender AL.2  June
ZB679 Aerospatiale Helicopter February
ZH002 Britten-Norman Defender AL.2 January

 

Registration Flight Records
XZ290 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C0CC
ZG669 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C228
ZH001 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C2B7
ZH003 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C2B9
ZH005 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C56A
ZG845 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C385
ZH004 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C2BA
ZG848 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C388
XW847 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C07D
ZG997 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C129
ZB679 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C22F
ZH002 https://flight-data.adsbexchange.com/activity?inputSelect=icao&icao=43C2B8