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I've been playing with flightRadar a lot recently, and over the past couple of days I've seen E6B 164409 flying racetracks over the UK at 23,000'. What is the purpose of the aircraft, and it's likely mission?

Such as this:

TACAMO Communicates with submarines with VLF. From what I recall it had a wire antenna and the airplane would make tight turns.

TACAMO

The map looks like a tour of major estuaries, which could indicate some kind of counter-submarine training. Not sure what they were doing flying down the Pennines, I don't think you can fit a submarine down the Manchester Ship Canal.

Either submarine training, or spreading the chemtrail love...

JLAmber wrote:The map looks like a tour of major estuaries, which could indicate some kind of counter-submarine training. Not sure what they were doing flying down the Pennines, I don't think you can fit a submarine down the Manchester Ship Canal.

Certainly not submerged! After a quick check, it seems length and beam aren't a problem. As far as I can tell, you'd get an Astute class into the dock at the entrance, just barely (draught of 10m is the maximum permitted). After that, the maximum is 8.7m. Not that that's stopped Astute in the past, of course

JLAmber wrote:The map looks like a tour of major estuaries, which could indicate some kind of counter-submarine training. Not sure what they were doing flying down the Pennines, I don't think you can fit a submarine down the Manchester Ship Canal.

The E-6 talks to submarines. It does not hunt them.