06 May 2014 (00:07 UTC-07 Tango)/06 Rajab 1435/14 Ordibehesht 1393/08 Ji-Si 4712

Back at the end of April, air traffic controllers at Los Angeles International (LAX) airport reported that their computers were “fried”.  By 02 May, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration quietly revealed that it was an attack by our own USAF EW (electronic warfare) U-2/TR-1 aircraft!

It wasn’t just LAX that was attacked, other airports in California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona also lost air traffic control computers to a targeted ECM (electronic counter measure) attack.

Air traffic controllers reported that their computers were misinterpreting radar signals, showing the high altitude U-2/TR-1 in locations that it shouldn’t be in, and also “interrupted the computer’s other flight-processing functions”.   The result was hundreds of commercial flights were re-routed!

This is a typical ECM attack, part of what is called in the USAF/NATO a Wild Weasel attack, in which the ECM jams the enemy radar with “noise”, or false signals of approaching aircraft (MH370/CZ748 anyone?).    Of course, in a complete Wild Weasel attack the ECM attack would be followed up with a radar homing missile blowing up the ground based radars.

On 30 April, civilian radar showed the high altitude U-2/TR-1 was flying at low altitude, crossing the flight paths of commercial aircraft.  The U-2/TR-1 is not designed to fly at low altitude for long periods of time, it’s specifically a high altitude research/recon aircraft.

The U-2/TR-1 is armed only with electronic warfare equipment, not actual kinetic weapons.  So why was a high altitude U-2/TR-1 targeting the radar systems of major airports in the western United States?  Neither the U.S. FAA nor the USAF gave an explanation!

Here’s an interesting note: The computer system that failed is a brand new (2008) system called En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM).  Was this just an elaborate test?  If so the expensive taxpayer funded upgrade was a big fail!