Yesterday, meteorologists, and anyone else watching weather radar in southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and western Kentucky, noticed an unusual formation drifting through the area. Although evidence remains limited, this was likely a burst of chaff released from a U.S. military aircraft, but there is still no clear explanation as to why the plane released the radar-reflecting countermeasures in this particular area.

At around 3:00 PM Central Time on Dec. 10, 2018, weathermen at local news stations in the area, as well as a National Weather Service (NWS) in Paducah, Kentucky, began tracking the radar "blob" as it dramatically expanded in length and began to move southward. Closer to 2:00 AM Central Time on Dec. 11, 2018, Wayne Hart, the Chief Meteorologist at ABC-affiliate WEHT in Evansville, Indiana, took to Twitter to offer the first real information about the radar reflective plume.

"Information from a pilot appears to confirm that chaff was the mysterious radar echo that traversed #tristatewx late Monday afternoon/evening," Hart Tweeted out. "Pilot was told by EVV [Evansville Regional Airport] Air Traffic Control that chaff was released by a military C130 [sic] northwest of Evansville." There has been no additional information about what specific service or unit the C-130 might have belonged to or what variant or subvariant it might have been. Hart also did not explain what the purpose of the release might have been beyond telling another Twitter user that it had been related to an unspecified military exercise. We have to stress that this explanation is far from official or corroborated in any tangible way.

The War Zone has reached out to the Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky National Guards as well as the U.S. Air Force seeking confirmation and more information. The Illinois Air National Guard's 182nd Airlift Wing, which does operate C-130s, told us that it only had one aircraft airborne on Dec. 10, 2018, and that it was not carrying chaff at all. At the time of writing, we have not received responses to any of our other queries. First developed during the Second World War, chaff consists of bundles of radar reflective material, commonly aluminum strips or bundles of metalized glass fibers. These types of material are extremely reflective on radar and as seen in the tracks above, can blind and confuse radars and their operators. The size of the individual strips or strands has a direct impact on what radar bands the chaff affects. C-130 types do have the ability to fire chaff from their AN/ALE-47 countermeasures dispensing system. The aircraft may have also had a launcher mounted on its rear cargo ramp or fitted in either of the two paratrooper doors on either side of the rear fuselage, that is if a C-130 is responsible for this puzzling countermeasures deployment.

USN US Navy RR-144, at top, and RR-129 chaff countermeasures, as well as loose chaff, at right. These are similar in basic function to the chaff countermeasures that various C-130 type aircraft use.

USAF Countermeasures dispensers on a C-130 type aircraft. The dispensers on the left are loaded with decoy flares that burn in the visual light spectrum, while the ones on the right most likely have infrared flares. Both of these are used to counter heat-seeking missiles. These same dispensers can also hold chaff cartridges if required.