Three P8 Poseidon - circling city - Chattanooga

[Phil]

I live in the Chattanooga, TN area and noticed lots of military plane activity this evening.



I saw two P8s circling our local airport and city that were showing up on ADS-B and a third p8 that was not identified on ADS-B. They did this for over approximately two hours. I have never seen three of them here before. Does anyone know what they may have been doing at a non-military airport ? Is this just standard training or was this something else?

In other words, for those of you who aren't aviation buffs, I saw three big azz high tech navy airplanes circling my city and flying low enough for me to clearly read “navy” on the side of the plane. It was very unusual to see three of them. I checked an online free radar service to confirm with radar what I was seeing with my eyes.



I felt it was unusual enough to ask about it. I know very little about their training versus active mission. If all three were in a mission and were circling around waiting for directions that is very out of the norm for this area.

[Barry B]

3 - E3s tight loops around OKC right now

[Radar]

Multiple E3s, E6s, P3s, P8s, RC135s, rivet joints and cobra balls active daily.



AWACS everywhere flying in the CONUS for the past 2 weeks, they seem to focus around the silos.

Earlier today I counted 25 stratotankers above conus. Lot's of rc135, 4 in the air at the same time and 3 e6 as well as the Poseidon and Pegasus air craft. I believe half a dozen of each. This activity has been happening since the Russians circled Ukraine and invaded it's borders.



Leading me to believe that the situation is much more dire than we are told.



25 stratotankers above conus is virtually unbelievable.

For those who don't know  P8s are primarily sub-hunters, but they can have a lot of other missions. Radiation detection, chemical and bio sensing, etc. The P-8s have been dramatically updated in the past few years.

[Les]

22s scrambling day and night at HIK. I live right next to base, always check the flight tracking sites. The a running with ADS-B off. Every now and then there is a distant sonic boom off to the southwest.

[Watcher]

Lots of military aircraft over northern Arizona today too...all day