I just read a story written by Jeremy Clarkson where he visited Iraq. His transport arrived and departed in the middle of the night, lights off, so that spotters couldn't determine direction or type of aircraft. So it would seem that they are acutely aware of the issue.
Re:How To Take Down an F-117
by icegreentea on Tuesday November 23, 2010 @07:23PM
(#1935966)
There's a scene in Blackhawk Down where a similar thing happens. Aided has a kid sitting around near the airport with a cellphone who calls in when he sees all the helicopters take off. I can't find any references if this actually happened or not.
Of course, this type of situation is kind of hard to avoid. Making sure that there's no one within line of sight of the take off path of an airport is kind of hard if it's anywhere close to a populated area.
There are a few references around to how some of his intelligence network involved people sitting outside (military) airports in Italy and phoning in when F-117's were taking off.