USAF Removes Tail Numbers From Cargo Planes

[JohnyMac]

Air Mobility Command has directed its refueling and cargo planes to obscure the majority of identifying information painted on the aircraft, citing national security concerns -- an unusual move that is alarming to government watchdogs.

James Stewart, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command, told Military.com in an emailed statement that airmen's missions take them around the globe and often involve sensitive movements of cargo -- the main reason behind the change.

"Understandably, we have concerns about the operational security impacts to these missions in the modern era of on-demand, real-time information," Stewart said. "Subdued paint schemes that limit identifiable information is one way we are taking a hard look at how we operate to ensure our ability to continue to deliver for America and our allies and partners around the world." -  Military.com

[RB in GA]

Not surpising. I imagine its partially in response to the Russian AWACS incident.  The Belorussian partisans damaged one with a drone strike. It took virtually no time for many post-strike sources to identify which specific AWACS was damaged.
My thinking is the USAF wants to make it a bit harder for folks to easily track aircraft and do that to them.

[grizz]

Not surpising. I imagine its partially in response to the Russian AWACS incident.  The Belorussian partisans damaged one with a drone strike. It took virtually no time for many post-strike sources to identify which specific AWACS was damaged.
My thinking is the USAF wants to make it a bit harder for folks to easily track aircraft and do that to them.

Black helicopters?

I've seen a handful of black and unmarked small planes in my area, a few parked at the kenai airport, and nobody knows nothing about them??

[Sir John Honeybucket]

This minor policy change does not surprise me. Considering that Tail number chasing and logging has been a surprisingly popular  hobby for decades and since the internet, it's shared world wide. You'ld see folks with telephoto lenses and etc. outside of Air Force bases in England - for example - and there were lots of platforms in/out of those bases.  This was during the Cold War.  Attempting this within the Soviet Bloc would have gone very badly.

I have no problem keeping our military movements private.  However, movements of politicians should be very public.

Sir John Honeybucket