Here what I found on Plastic.com! “American spy planes have photographed the TAG NUMBER PLATE of Taliban warlord Mullah Mohammed Omar’s car, according to The Sun, and printed it on leaflets dropped as a chilling warning to his troops,” writes mckoonts. “I’m going to assume that these pics are pre-9/11. Otherwise, we’d have put a cruise up the tail-pipe, no? Still interesting, dont’cha think?” Of course it’s interesting! I never imagned Taliban troops would be able to recognize Mohammed Omar’s license plate or be able to read “We Are Watching” in English. Their elite warrior cadre must be a lot better prepared than we thought.
Tonight’s news showed a bunch of Afghans riding in a Toyota truck. I mean at least ten. The newsman said that one of the most prized items of the Northern Alliance was Taliban trucks and cars. There also seems to be a good number of Afghans who speak English. But that is probably because of the British involvement there.
Considering that our KH-11 series satellites can pick out the shoulderboards of an officer’s uniform, an automobile license plate shouldn’t be too much of a problem (especially considering the very large numerals on some foreign plates). These birds can even resolve the the overhead body profile (i.e., breasts) of a human so well that you can make gender distinctions of individuals standing on the ground.
Interesting that this question should show up now. Tonight i attended a talk by William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense, who said, “Our satellites can read license plates from space.” I noted this and copied it verbatim because i had seen that same claim passed off as impossible previously, possibly on this board. Seems like a pretty reliable source, unless he was misinformed orexaggerating for effect (unlikely, imho).
Hmmm…, the easily available aerial photos I find on the 'net (which I use to lay out seismic program and anticipate drillsite problems) are of the 1 m resolution variety. With these you can usually knock off a pickup truck v. a sedan, but that’s about it. And they’re flown at 2,000-5,000 feet.
To read a license plate you need what? About 3 cm resolution?
Do you have a cite for this? From what I read, the resolution of the KH-11 is usually speculated as around 5 inches. I think you need a 1-inch resoluiton to read the licence plate.
But the OP asked about spy planes not satellites. I think they can have higher resolution because they are a lot closer to the target than the satellites, but I’m not too sure. Maybe the unmanned recon drones can get very close and photograph licence plates.
According this report from the Philly Inquirer there was a total lack of civil law enforcement under the Taliban, including such things as issuing drivers licences. It seems reasonable to assume that there was an equal disregard for vehicle registration, leaving a good chance there were no plates to photograph. Maybe they caught an “I (heart) Kandahar” bumper sticker.
This link lists a ground resolution of 15cm (presumably under ideal conditions) for the KH-11. Of course, the quote by the OP says the photos were taken by a spy plane, so the issue of satellite resolution is moot.
I think you overestimate its ability. FAS lists the KH-11 as having 3.91-5.61 inches. The Improved Crystal (The most advanced satalite listed) has resolution aproaching 10cm. Not nearly enough to read shoulderboards, though maybe enough to discern a few details of the body profile. Even with the forgiving 10cm resolution, the numbers on a plate would appear as one or two pixels (dots, whatever) in the final image, nowhere near readable. The satalites don’t give as good resolution as some hollywood movies show them
However… As was noted before, the piece said it was taken by a “spy plane” not a satalite, so it’s a moot point. And with the general vagueness of “spy plane” in the media, it’s certainly in the realm of possibility.
As for the quote saying that licenseplates can be read from space… Maybe if they were mounted on the TOP of the car, and the satalite knew where they were (Since I don’t believe current satalites can be directed “on the fly” and have to be programed before their sweep, and not showing events in real-time, but I could very well be mistaken on that). But on a moving vehicle? Doubtfull…
Don’t have a cite, but I read this on some news site a while back, and they specifically said the picture was taken by an unarmed unmanned drone plane, which explains why we took pictures instead of shooting missles at it.
These were posted on one of the US news sites a few weeks ago (cnn.com or abcnews.com, I think). The site showed two flyers, side-by-side, one in arabic and the other in english. The english flyer was clearly labeled as a translation - i.e., the flyers distributed in Afghan were the arabic ones (or whatever script they read over there).
Also, the flyers did show a grainy photo of a plate on a vehicle, but the numbers were intentinally blured. One assumes that on the original flyer, the plate was legible.
As I recall, the flyer’s assertion was not that the plate was from Omar’s personal vehicle, but that we can see and track anything we choose in Afghanistan.
