Spanish military on Lanzarote

[Ration Fan]

Hello!
I have 2 questions especially to our spanish members.
So here they are:
I recently spent my holidays with my family on Lanzarote(beautiful island, by the way) and I saw one mountain there, which was "zona militar" and there were many antennas and radar stuff on it.
So my question is, what this actually is.
Is this simply for securing the air above the Canarian Islands?

And one day we had sandstorm.
From our hotel, we could see the starting and landing planes of the airport.
And then a jet of the spanish airforce started(I think to measure the air?).
This jet looked like a starfighter.
So, does the spanish airforce have starfighters?
I know, that they HAD starfighters, but I think the last of them retired at the end of the 1960´s.
The jet also could been a Mirage or something like that...

[Stef]

Hi,
it looks like 1) Spanish Air Forces have got a base at Lanzarote
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ej%C3%A9rc ... spa%C3%B1a

2) Spanish Air Forces use F5's among other jets and they look a little bit like Starfighters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-5

[Ration Fan]

Thanks for the answer!
Yes, I know that there is an airbase on Lanzarote(Aerodromo Militar de Lanzarote), I saw it when our plane drove to the runway.
But I mean, there is a base on the top of one mountain too.

Now, as I see the picture, I´m sure that it was a F5!
Do you know if they probably measured the air or something that has to do with the sandstorm?

[rationtin440]

Another possibility, although more likely during the cold war, is that these planes were doing high altitude air sampling drills to measure radioactive dust from a simulated burst. Most countries with air forces are doing more training in this with all the terrtorist threats in the world today.

[Ration Fan]

Yeah, it could be.
But in those times of modern terrorism..I don´t really think so.

[rationtin440]

We can only hope that is not the case, because that might indicate that the Spanish government is expecting something to happen, or it could be just any one of a number of things completely different.

[dirtbag]

Or...
Perhaps the Casa 101 Trainer?

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 8874,d.cGE

[Ration Fan]

No, I´m sure it was a F5.