RAF 'ordered to shoot down UFOs' (UK Government directive)

[sabra]

Source: UK telegraph

The RAF has tried to shoot down suspected UFOs as part of a Government directive, it has been claimed.

Pilots have apparently fired upon the unidentified objects without success since the 1980s, according to Nick Pope, who used to run the Ministry of Defence's UFO project.

"There was a faction in the MoD who said 'We want to shoot down a UFO and that will resolve the issue one way or another'," he told The Sun.

"We know of cases where the order has been given to shoot down - with little effect to the UFO."

Mr Pope claimed that the RAF only attempted to engage when the mysterious objects were perceived to be a threat.

He said: "In the case of UFOs, whether the object is causing a threat is very much a pilot's judgement call. The public won't know unless it comes down in a heavily populated area."

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/4342884/RAF-ordered-to-shoot-down-UFOs.html

[Ian David]

1. Isn't this like telling hunters to shoot at anything you hear making noise in the bushes?

You're supposed to know what a target is before you shoot at it.

[MilesColtrane]

19. If it's flying straight at me, I'm not waiting to see the greens of their eyes.

I'm shooting.

[Ian David]

20. What if they see with their vaginas? n/t

[Mari333]

30. LOL

[Turborama]

46. I literally laughed out loud, thanks for the chuckles! K&R

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Bring it on." - Reptilian Republicanus Homelanderians

[Joe Bacon]

45. This looks like a job for...

[GodlessBiker]

3. Yes, Earthlings are going to outgun an interstellar travelling civilization.

[raystorm7]

16. The logic just makes ones head explode. Appearantly humans need the extinction disease, like fast!

[Soylent Brice]

23. no shit

[Chris-135]

31. I would respectfully counter-argue that

1.) the North Koreans, Chinese, North Vietnamese, Iraqis, and Afghanis have done a pretty good job over the years defending themselves against advanced aerial threats using technology that basically has been the same since the middle ages - gunpowder and a bit of lead

2.) We always assume that aliens would have to be billions of years ahead of us technologically. Maybe there's some out of the box shortcut to warp drive that we'll discover in a century, or sooner if we'd look in the right place without the current blinkered mindset. Transcontinental air travel would have been an outlandish sci-fi concept in 1900

3.) If at least some of the stories of crashes are true, these guys have a P***-poor safety record - they're apparently as capable of getting hit by lightning, controlled flight into terrain, etc as we are.

I wouldn't want 'em to be shot at willy-nilly for just exploration and monitoring - if they start causing widespread interference with power systems on the ground, suspiciously hovering over someone's home, something on that order, they need to be moved along.

[FarCenter]

4. Isn't it easier to infect them with a virus using your Apple laptop?

[Xipe Totec]

5. I downed a whole fleet of them just the other day

[shadowknows69]

6. Great strategy, attack a foe that is obviously more technologically advanced than you.

[olddad56]

40. why do you just assume that they are 'foes'? Are you sure you are on the right board?

[shadowknows69]

42. I wasn't flying with the RAF that night.

I wouldn't have shot. Go fuck yourself with your "sure you're on the right board?" shit.

[Regret My New Name]

44. That line seems to be being thrown around a lot these last few weeks...

weird.

[shadowknows69]

48. It's caused by acute lack of sense of humor.

[bushmeister0]

7. What I'm wondering is what the aliens have against wind power?

Orange orbs were blamed for destroying a wind turbine? Are these orbs from Exxon/Mobil?

The real guestion is what if anything our own USAF did about the thing, what ever it was, that flew over the Mall on inauguration day?

[relayerbob]

17. I understand ...

they sent Cheney out to shoot that *bird*, but he only managed to shoot himself in the face

[wroberts189]

8. Yes lets shoot down a superior race of beings..brilliant nt

[acmavm]

9. Oh crap, if they can get here I doubt that they have a lot to worry

about from OUR technology. They probably pissed (or whatever they do) themselves laughing.

[lovuian]

10. I made a Video of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWQUkPQpVts

Two U.S. fighter planes were scrambled and ordered to shoot down an unidentified flying object (UFO) over the English countryside during the Cold War, according to secret files made public on Monday

[nxylas]

11. There's no such thing as a "suspected UFO"

Either a flying object is unidentified or it isn't.

[liberal N proud]

12. The aliens will just destroy earth

They have much bigger weapons than we do


:rofl:

[snake in the grass]

13. Wow!

That is certainly going to make a great first impression!

Fucking idiots!

[HopeHoops]

14. That's just going to piss off the Vogons - they'll probably jam the airwaves with poetry.

[Monk06]

15. Puny humans and your silly toys. Phtttt

[Phoonzang]

18. Hmm...more and more is coming out. Hopefully we'll start releasing some of our UFO files.

Not that it'll matter. People will just start making asinine jokes about Uranus and go on with their merry little lives.

[edbermac]

21. Klaatu barada nikto!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

24. OK

It's a good job you said that. I won't destroy earth now

[xchrom]

22. just the fact that they have ordered and fired on 'ufos' is

interesting.

it's a weird kind of admission that they are a 'powered aircraft' of some kind.

they just don't know what?

anyway -- it is amusing.

[Soylent Brice]

25. well, that makes perfect sense...

oh look, there's an advanced civilization from another world. they've come to save our species by enlightening us about our existence, and sharing technologies, and medical advancements that could heal the planet as a whole.

well, can't have any of that.

FIRE AT WILL, COMMANDER!!!

[L. Coyote]

26. "it has been claimed" is in the headline ERGO it is a FACT. Glad that's settled.

[Buenaventura]

27. UFOs tell RAF "all your base are belong to us"

(sorry - someone had to say it)

[No Elephants]

50. Yes, you're right. Someone had to. LOL

[Yavapai]

28. Shoot at UFOs????

I will not shoot at any Ugly Fucking Okies!

Or any good looking Okies either! :silly:

[Canuckistanian]

29. Great. Have an unknown phenomenon? Let's shoot at it.

GREAT reasoning skills.

Another reason why weapons should not be given to military people unless absolutely necessary.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

32. Why do people assume that UFO = aliens?

It's more likely that the RAF were concerned with "mysterious objects" being sent by the Soviet Union, or the Russian Federation thereafter.

[Ignis]

33. A Bill Hicks quote comes to mind here:

People are bringing shotguns to UFO sightings in Fife, Alabama. I asked a guy, "Why do you bring a gun to a UFO sighting?" Guy said, "Way-ul, we didn' wanna be ab-duc-ted." If I lived in Fife, Alabama, I would be on my hands and knees every night praying for abduction.

:rofl:

[truebrit71]

34. ROFL!!!

n/t

[paparush]

35. I Want To Be Leaves

"Roger, charlie tango foxtrot delta..splash, one splash one. Make that one streetlight down. No chute. Repeat no chute."

[Mari333]

36. leave the flying bangers alone

[lunatica]

37. But, but... but they don't exist!

It's all weather balloons! Or hoaxes! Do they have orders to shoot hoaxes down?!

It's sooo confusing!

[slackmaster]

38. This could lead to a tragic waste of alien life

:cry:

[olddad56]

41. why try to understand and learn from them when we can try to kill em.

[IndianaGreen]

39. Who's the idiot that wanted to start an interplanetary war?

If the UFO was extraterrestrial, their superior technology would squash us like a bug. Why attack the more advanced civilization? If the UFO was of Earth origin, it would be equally stupid. Shooting down U-2 brought a lot of grief on more than one occasion.

[pinniped]

43. I haven't heard of any UFOs engaging their aircraft in any hostile manner.

The RAF don't know who they're messing with.

[snot]

47. Wouldn't it be even better if they just shot video?

[Norrin Radd]

49. Turn on your heart light.