306 – Flying the RC-135S Cobra Ball

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Guest: Robert Hopkins Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Bastian Hundt

Throughout the cold war, and til today, the Cobra-codenamed ground, sea and air assets have been used by the US to monitor Soviet/Russian ICBM missile launches and warhead reentries. The air component consists of the RC-135 Cobra Ball/Eye aircraft. Flying from Shemya in the Aleutians they used cameras and other sensors. Our guest, Robert Hopkins has been flying the aircraft in the late 1980s. In this episode he tells us about the mission and the flying — Shemya could be quite challenging.

Robert is also the author of the book on the KC-135, you might want to check it out.

00:01:53.000 Introduction of Robert Hopkins 00:03:38.000 Overview of the Missions 00:13:53.000 The KC-135 00:23:58.000 Difference between Cobra Ball and Cobra Eye 00:30:33.000 Lisa Ann Mission 00:37:18.000 Flying, Operating and Living at Shemya 01:01:56.000 The Cobra Mission 00:03:23.000 The Book of Robert Hopkins 01:27:23.000 The End