Pat Flannery wrote:


Henry Spencer wrote:

Hints: (1) France was not the only US ally that refused to cooperate.
(2) There was no particular rush, yet the US insisted on going ahead at
once rather than taking the time to talk one of its allies around.

The trick would be to have gotten Andorra to host a visiting F-111 group
for a airshow on the day of the attack.


Well.. Considering that Italy was just a few miles away, it kinda
makes you wonder why aircraft were launched from England... It
wasn't like Italy was not involved in a few other terrorist events
the previous couple years. And, there were US bases in Italy. If
planes flew from England, why not Italy?


Both RAF Mildenhall and Lakenheath were engaged in military exercises
the week of the bombing. There was no real secret to the mission takeoff
though. IIRC, the Libyan air defenses went on alert within an hour of
the takeoff of the aircraft. (Which was *very* noticeable). The
assets had been sitting on the tarmac for roughly 10 days prior to
mission. If anything, the French did the F-111 pilots a favor because
the air defense batteries were standing down and not alert by the
time the planes actually arrived.


Then they could fly over the French/Spanish border toward Andorra, be
intercepted by a fighter of the Andorran Air Force (a Cierva C.30A
Autogyro with a machine gun on it), which notices the planes are armed,
be expelled from Andorran airspace for this affront...and expel
themselves in a south-easterly direction to do their bombing run on
Libya. To show our deep sorrow for having trifled with Andorra's
national sovereignty by showing up in a armed state for an airshow, they
state that they have taken the offending bombs far from its territory
and jettisoned them in a barren wasteland.
Then they return to Andorra in a unarmed state for the airshow, but
still Andorra is not satisfied, and again they are expelled...this time
north-westwards toward England.
If we'd agreed to build Andorra an airport for doing this, I'd bet
they'd have gone for it, providing they could figure out where to fit it.
If they couldn't, then we could upgrade the AAF to a Huey Cobra. :-D

Pat