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Russian Fighter Jet Nearly Collides with U.S. Spy Jet Over Europe

ThunderStealer

ThunderStealer

Power Poster
Joined
Mar 22, 2015
"A Russia Su-27 jet fighter flew dangerously close and nearly collided with a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft this week in the latest aerial provocation by Moscow, defense officials revealed to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Su-27 conducted the close-in intercept of an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, said officials. The incident prompted a diplomatic protest."


This should help cool things down a bit.


http://freebeacon.com/national-secu...nearly-collides-with-u-s-spy-jet-over-europe/
 
While the conflicts in the Middle East keep American assets tied up, and the RF continues to threaten Allied territorial integrity, it seems the name of the game is "Stretch 'Em Thin and Poke Some Holes". In my opinion, this is just the first of a coming series of extremely daring moves, as the RF tries to keep our heads whipping back and forth.
Oswald said:
I'm having a hard time understanding how that the Russians could get an interceptor THAT close to a US/RAF High Value Airborne Asset.
Click to expand...

It's unlikely that NATO forces didn't send an escort, or at least keep one in local air space. Maybe they're still on edge from March, and were afraid of direct confrontation? Purely speculation on my part.
 
Here's a thing... I'm hearing air veterans say this sort of thing happened regularly during the Cold War... But did it?

I was only a teenager in the early 80s, but a well informed one - I read broadsheet newspapers most days and always watched News at Ten... But never even saw any hint that this was happening. And lately I've been looking at Cold War era newspapers on an archive site - I posted the piece about Sergei Ivanov on General Discussion - and though there is, as I remembered it, a lot more open discussion of nuclear weapons, I haven't found any articles about air force activity.

Would the current stuff remain unreported if we didn't have online sources? No UK newspaper seems to have touched this...

Or is it really a new development, and people are just quoting the Cold War to stop us panicking? Because the 'Russian bombers over Bournemouth' story has made a lot of people here uneasy, especially if they are about to fly on their holidays.
 
Oddly enough, I'm having a difficult time finding a second source for the story (U.S. or Russian). The original article says it was within 20ft. You'd think this kind of provocation would be pretty widely covered... Could be I'm just looking in the wrong places.
 
BadKarma said:
Oddly enough, I'm having a difficult time finding a second source for the story (U.S. or Russian). The original article says it was within 20ft. You'd think this kind of provocation would be pretty widely covered... Could be I'm just looking in the wrong places.
Click to expand...

Russia Today ran a piece on it, saying that it wasn't a major incident, adding that US reconnaissance aircraft should stay near the US (bit rich, considering where the Russians go).

I can't put a link cos I'm on my phone right now, but it'll be on the RT site.
 
Russia Protects Strategic Nukes in Crimea and Kalingrad-The Reason for the Russian Reaction

"RC-135U 'Combat Sent'
      Two aircraft are designated RC-135U "Combat Sent" and are characterized by cheek fairings and additional fairings in the chin, boomer, wingtip, tail cone and fin-top positions. Until 1991 they were fitted with "towel rail" antennas above the cheek fairings, but these have been removed. The RC-135Us are believed to have special purposes within the SIGINT fleet, and may also be used to trial new equipment."


There are reportedly only 2-3 of the U models. Notice "Combat Sent" and STRATCOM out of Offnutt, one of the facilities in the Stargate Mountain Raytheon contract.

They are integral to the Initial Threat Warning/AA system in the Raytheon contract. So possible ties to the relocation of STRATCOM NORTHCOM to Cheyenne.

Obviously this really spooked the RF because they are not just Recon, they have a Combat designation. That could mean many things, but they were in International airspace, so CNN is reporting a formal complaint was filed around 45 min. ago.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/11/europe/russia-u-s-plane-intercept/index.html

As for support, many options. There was naval assets in the Black Sea with over the horizon Mach 4 AIB 120s that record any jamming signal and retransmit to the source as a lock on. Plus many other assets that the RF felt the only option was physical denial. It would be worth losing a Su 27 when we only have 2-3 of the U versions.

Good news, we probably got the info we wanted. Why else committ kamikaze? This was not an interception, this was an admission of no other choice over Intl. waters.

http://www.strategic-air-command.com/aircraft/command/rc135-command_planes.htm
 
Nice. Thanks for the other articles.

As far as the encounter goes, maybe someone was hoping to bait them into shooting, but most likely that they wanted a closer look at the aircraft configuration. I guarantee that the gun cameras were rolling the entire time.
 
Why the RF is Concerned

Mission
The RC-135U Combat Sent provides strategic electronic reconnaissance information to the president, secretary of defense, Department of Defense leaders, and theater commanders. Locating and identifying foreign military land, naval and airborne radar signals, the Combat Sent collects and minutely examines each system, providing strategic analysis for warfighters. Collected data is also stored for further analysis by the joint warfighting and intelligence communities. The Combat Sent deploys worldwide and is employed in peacetime and contingency operations.

There are only two Combat Sent aircraft in the Air Force inventory and both are assigned to the 55th Wing at Offutt AFB, Neb. The RC-135U aircraft are manned by Air Combat Command crews from the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron and the 97th Intelligence Squadron (of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency). The Combat Sent is composed of a wide variety of commercial off-the-shelf and proprietary hardware and software. Its current configuration allows for both manual and automatic analysis of electronic signals. By combining manual systems with the Automatic Electronic Emitter Locating System, Ravens and intelligence specialists can simultaneously locate, identify, and analyze multiple electronic signals.

All RC-135U aircraft are equipped with an aerial refueling system, giving it an unlimited flying range. Communication equipment includes high frequency, very high frequency, and ultra high frequency radios. The navigation equipment incorporates ground navigation radar, a solid state Doppler system, and an inertial navigation system that merges celestial observations and Global Positioning System data. Although the flight crew stations are similarly configured, the reconnaissance equipment is slightly unique within each airframe.

The Combat Sent records these signals for future reference or for extensive analysis by electronic systems theorists. Any information garnered from the data will help determine detailed operating characteristics and capabilities of foreign systems. Evasion techniques and equipment are then developed from this knowledge that will detect, warn of, or defeat these electronic systems.


The RF is trying to counter our ABMS, and we needed their evasion techniques, detailed operational characteristics, etc of what nukes they just placed in Crimea and Kalingrad. Since it merges celestial and GPS and operated in HF and Ultra HF, they surely got close enough to accomplish the mission.

Notice the Combat designation because this goes straight to the President, SECDEF the people authorized to launch. Russia knows this. Probably scared em a wee bit, don't ya think?

Russia has now been severely probed and now we have the specs on what we are dealing with. Perhaps the most provocative move yet by the US. Interested to see the RFs response to this one.

http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104495/rc-135u-combat-sent.aspx
 
Notice the Russian Hypocricy

Konashenkov said the fighter jet flew around the U.S. plane several times before forcing it to fly off. He said, "U.S. reconnaissance planes can perform routine flights only along U.S. borders."

Yes, and Russia cannot be making new ICBMs, violating Baltic airspace, backing out of treaties, etc. But we can only recon along our borders. No more rules, get it Russia?

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-fighter-intercepts-us-plane-baltic/26950534.html
 
I'd say close enough to feel jet wash is a pretty solid response. Nothing stating what configuration the flanker was actually running, either, so the U.S. could have just given away detailed readings to the RF. What's troubling is that either way, whatever they were after must have been worth the risk to them...


And that last bit is a laugh. They're still okay to run aerial recce around the Arctic, and Alaska, but we're forbidden to return the favour? Lol
 
BadKarma said:
I'd say close enough to feel jet wash is a pretty solid response. Nothing stating what configuration the flanker was actually running, either, so the U.S. could have just given away detailed readings to the RF. What's troubling is that either way, whatever they were after must have been worth the risk to them...


And that last bit is a laugh. They're still okay to run aerial recce around the Arctic, and Alaska, but we're forbidden to return the favour? Lol
Click to expand...

LOL! Yes the US saw it was worth it. The President, SECDEF, made the call to continue, so I'll give them an 'A' for guts. Plus you take down something we only have 2 of, I'd say Katy Barthe Door, wouldn't you? :D
 
Yes Sir, and I'm proud of their bravery. Must have been a very high priority mission!
 
Russia Warns US That It Can Counter Its Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems: Sees PGS Of US As A Serious Threat

The recent show of military strength by the U.S. in the Eastern Europe for reassuring the region, including Poland and Baltic countries, has provoked a strong reaction from Russia. It warned the U.S. that Russia has the military resources to counter the former’s anti-ballistic missile systems. Alexander Lukashevich, official representative of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, Russia, despite having such capabilities would rather not use it.


You mean that they would rather not launch missiles at our ABMS? I think that would be prudent. I think we would rather not launch nukes at them as well. All this after we just acquired their targeting packages, radar freqs, capabilities, positions, and C2 over their 'resources'. I bet you would rather not try that first strike nonsense.

That's like saying 'we could start WWIII, but we'd rather not..'. Boy, talk about stating the obvious, that's completely laughable.

http://au.ibtimes.com/russia-warns-us-it-can-counter-its-anti-ballistic-missile-systems-sees-pgs-us-serious-threat-1437621
 
I'm not buying this. I mean a US spy plane outside Russia, without its transponder on, and the jet takes a close look to make sure everything is OK with the plane.. Last time I checked, (excluding use of radio) protocol for that is to get as close as possible, and tip your wings/blink your lights near the cockpit, and wait for a response.

But lets not even worry about the details; lets just flip the situation in reverse: a Russian spy plane without transponder on is intercepted near US borders, and US plane flies 'dangerously close'.

First question. - Would the 'dangerously close' part even surface?
second q - How would USAF respond?
third q - How would it be played in the media?

This just seems to be media demonizing the ensnared Russia. US/NATO has it surrounded on all fronts, putting pressure on almost every part of Russia. And now US spy planes are basically raging saying 'DAMMIT LET ME SPY ON YOU IN PEACE!' I mean... SERIOUSLY? One of these days US/NATO is gonna put its head in the bears mouth one too many times :S
 
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