Narrative:

We were on a vector and a climb to 13;000. ATC called traffic ahead and I could see on the TCAS that if I continued to climb to 13;000 there could be a conflict. About 12;500; I decreased our climb rate trying to avoid a conflict with traffic that we could not see visually. I did finally see the aircraft which passed off our right side about the same altitude. This was somewhere between 12;500 and 13;000 ft. I don't know the lateral separation. We received a TCAS RA telling us to descend which I followed. It was a rather aggressive RA calling for about 1;800 ft per minute descent. During this maneuver; we noticed another target on our left. I'm not sure if the RA was for the first or second airplane. The planes appeared to be in a loose formation. I think they were military but not sure. The first plane that I saw was small. Neither the captain nor myself saw the 2nd one because my attention was directed inside the plane at the vsi directing the RA. I don't know how close the 2nd plane was. We advised ATC we were responding to a RA. ATC seemed surprised. After the RA was complete; I started the climb once again to 13;000. We then switched frequencies and continued the flight.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD83 flight crew reports responding to a TCAS RA during climb to 13;000 FT caused by military aircraft; in loose formation; below 13;500 FT.

Narrative: We were on a vector and a climb to 13;000. ATC called traffic ahead and I could see on the TCAS that if I continued to climb to 13;000 there could be a conflict. About 12;500; I decreased our climb rate trying to avoid a conflict with traffic that we could not see visually. I did finally see the aircraft which passed off our right side about the same altitude. This was somewhere between 12;500 and 13;000 FT. I don't know the lateral separation. We received a TCAS RA telling us to descend which I followed. It was a rather aggressive RA calling for about 1;800 FT per minute descent. During this maneuver; we noticed another target on our left. I'm not sure if the RA was for the first or second airplane. The planes appeared to be in a loose formation. I think they were military but not sure. The first plane that I saw was small. Neither the Captain nor myself saw the 2nd one because my attention was directed inside the plane at the VSI directing the RA. I don't know how close the 2nd plane was. We advised ATC we were responding to a RA. ATC seemed surprised. After the RA was complete; I started the climb once again to 13;000. We then switched frequencies and continued the flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.