Frak! The U.S. military is apparently using Cylon callsigns on missions over Libya.
Indeed, Dutch radio-communications expert “Huub” – who has been monitoring military transmissions since the start of Operation Odyssey Dawn – confirms that one of the Air Force’s E-8C Joint Stars surveillance and command aircraft boasts the callsign Cylon 41.
Meanwhile, yet another JSTARS plane has been dubbed Cylon 36.
Naturally, the Air Force refused to confirm the existence of Cylon callsigns or Cylon base-ships in the context of Operation Odyssey Dawn.
However, Marine Captain Clint Gedke, a spokesman for the task force on the U.S.S. Mount Whitney, told Wired “If I personally had a callsign, I would want it to be that cool.”
So, what is a JSTAR?
Well, the U.S. Air Force website describes the modified Boeing 707-300 as an airborne battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform.
Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with ground surveillance to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the delay, disruption and destruction of enemy forces.
Yes, the JSTAR isn’t as cool as a Cylon base or resurrection ship, but hey, we’ll take what we can get!
[Via Wired]
