'Aggressive and erratic' Russian fighter jet barrel-rolls within 15m of US plane

[خره مينه لګته وي]

A Russian SU-27 fighter jet (file pic) AFP / Stringer/ Getty images


A Russian fighter jet “performed erratic and aggressive manoeuvres” as it flew just 15 metres from a US Air Force plane, it has emerged.

The incident took place over the Baltic Sea during a routine flight in international airspace on Thursday, the US European Command said.

The US plane was “intercepted by a Russian SU-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for the Command, told CNN.

“The unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries,”he said.

The incident comes days after Russian jets passed close to US destroyer Donald Cook, which was also in the Baltic Sea. Russian Su-24 military planes made several close-range passes, at one point coming within nine metres of the vessel.

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The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, criticised the actions, saying: “We condemn this kind of behaviour. It is reckless. It is provocative. It is dangerous. And under the rules of engagement that could have been a shoot-down.

“People need to understand that this is serious business and the United States is not going to be intimidated."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US had “raised our concerns with the Russians”. “I can tell you that that communication has occurred, and we'll seek to resolve our differences through well-established military channels.”

Russia's defence military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the US had overreacted: “All flights of aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces are performed strictly in accordance with the international regulations on the use of airspace over neutral waters."

The defence ministry “does not understand the reason for such a painful reaction of our American colleagues", he added.

“The principle of freedom of navigation for the US destroyer, which is staying in close proximity to a Russian naval base in the Baltic Sea, does not cancel the principle of freedom of flight for Russian aircraft,” the official said.


Source : Independent

 

[Penguin]

Already reported and discussed https://defence.pk/threads/russian-...ea-defence-official-says.426813/#post-8248675

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russian-fi...tm_campaign=rss&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/news

 

[damm1t]

Russia will be responsible of 3rd world war.

 

[T-Rex]

Russia will be responsible of 3rd world war.

Don't worry, uncle sam won't respond to this kind of behaviour from an equal. Uncle sam shows its fangs only to the weak.

 

[Penguin]

Don't worry, uncle sam won't respond to this kind of behaviour from an equal. Uncle sam shows its fangs only to the weak.

Active Russian navy ships (82 surface combattants)

• 1 Aircraft carrier (Kuznetsov)
• 1 Battlecruiser (Kirov)
• 3 Cruisers (Slava)
• 15 Destroyers (1 Kashin, 5 Sovremenny, 9 Udaloy)
• 5 Frigates (3 Krivak, 2 Neustrashimy, plus 1 Grigorovich and 1 Gorshkov entering service 2016)
• 24 Corvettes (4 Steregushchy, 2 Gepard, 7 Parchim, 6 Grisha, 1 Mukha, 4 Pauk)
• 33 Missile boats (2 Dergach, 3 Buyan, 5 Buyan-M, 6 Nanuchka, 13 Tarantul, 4 Matka)

Active US navy ships (100 surface combattants)

• 10 carriers (Nimitz CVN)
• 22 Cruisers (Ticonderoga)
• 62 destroyers (Arleigh Burke)
• 6 Littoral Combat ships (Freedom/Independence)
• 0 Corvettes
• 0 Missile boats

Russia and US equal?

 

[T-Rex]

Active Russian navy ships (major surface combattants)

• 1 Aircraft carrier (Kuznetsov)
• 1 Battlecruiser (Kirov)
• 3 Cruisers (Slava)
• 15 Destroyers (1 Kashin, 5 Sovremenny, 9 Udaloy)
• 5 Frigates (3 Krivak, 2 Neustrashimy, plus 1 Grigorovich and 1 Gorshkov entering service 2016)

Active US navy ships (major surface combattants)

• 10 carriers (Nimitz CVN)
• 22 Cruisers (Ticonderoga)
• 62 destroyers (Arleigh Burke)
• 6 Littoral Combat ships (Freedom/Independence)
• 0 corvettes

Russia and US equal?

Yes, the US has much stronger conventioanl forces but as Trump said, the nukes are the game changer.

 

[Penguin]

@ T-Rex: In the context we are discussing, those nukes are totally irrelevant.

If they weren't - and following your reasoning - China would have never been allowed to enter US territorial waters of Alaska with its navy ships last year, following a joint exercise with the Russians.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/04/politics/china-ships-alaska-us-waters/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese...sed-through-u-s-territorial-waters-1441350488

Nor would the French have gone looking for that Russian SSBN off their coast, and the Brits likewise of their coast.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-submarine-france-idUSKCN0WC23T
http://www.thelocal.fr/20160310/russian-subs-and-fighter-jets-doing-off-the-french-coast
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34896956
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...submarine-thought-coast-Scotland-10-days.html

https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat

 

[T-Rex]

@ T-Rex: In the context we are discussing, those nukes are totally irrelevant.

Where do you think Russia would be without its nukes? Russia is an equal as far as the US is concerned because of her nukes. Ukraine trusted the sweet 'assurances' of the US under the pretext of the NPT and surrendered her Nukes and it didn't take long to pay the price. Where was uncle sam with its assurances when Ukraine was invaded?

 

[Beast]

Where do you think Russia would be without its nukes? Russia is an equal as far as the US is concerned because of her nukes. Ukraine trusted the sweet 'assurances' of the US under the pretext of the NPT and surrendered her Nukes and it didn't take long to pay the price. Where was uncle sam with its assurances when Ukraine was invaded?

Precisely, someone can brag USN has even 1000 CVN but if none of them send to Ukraine to support them against Russia or take real action, it is equal to zero CVN.

Having the weapon while lacking the ball to take action is equal to impotent.

 

[Penguin]

This is the Baltic Sea. Russia has coastline near St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad Oblast only. Total shore length is 18,000 km. The Baltic Sea is 1601 km tall and 193 wide at the longest point of distance. Territorial waters extend 12 nmi = 22 km out to sea from shore. Beyond are international waters and airways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Sea

Russia owns only 7 % of the coast of the Baltic Sea. The length of the shoreline of the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland is 820 km (without island’s coasts), of which 350 km are the Northern coast which is heavily indented by fjords and skerries fringe forming numerous gulfs divided by belts. The length of the shoreline within Kaliningrad region is 145 km including Sambiyskiy peninsula (71 km), Curonian (49 km) and Visla (25 km) spits.
http://www.ccb.se/documents/Nationalreport_RUSSIA.pdf.

From the town of Kaliningrad to the Polish (NATO) port of Gdansk is 118 km.
http://www.worldatlas.com/travelaids/flight_distance.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Sea#/media/File:Baltic_Sea_map.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Sea#/media/File:Ostseetiefen.png

Russian EEZ in the Baltic (in red)

https://www.zin.ru/projects/ieg/area.htm

@T-Rex, @Beast: you are wrong. And you ignore the point I made about e.g. the Chinese incursion into US terrotorial waters, which actually disproves your thesis. Anyway, if you are set in your thinking, as both of you seem to be, then there is no point discussing further on the basis of merit of arguments.

Have a nice day.

ps: Only a weakminded idiot nation would go to war over such obvious provocations like these. To take professional restraint for weakness may cost a swaggering military dearly at some point. @T-Rex: There is no comparision whatsoever between these indicents and e.g. the situation regarding the Ukraine. Apples and oranges altogether. @Beast: I don't recal the Chinese shooting at US ships and aircraft passing near by an artificially formed island some place else in the world: how's that speak to the 'potency' of China (where were the missile armed J-11s and H-6? The 052C and Ds? The Type 039As and 093s? HQ-9? Perhaps, as you say, having the weapons while lacking the balls to take action is indeed equal to impotence, but that applies in all cases then).

Where do you think Russia would be without its nukes? Russia is an equal as far as the US is concerned because of her nukes. Ukraine trusted the sweet 'assurances' of the US under the pretext of the NPT and surrendered her Nukes and it didn't take long to pay the price. Where was uncle sam with its assurances when Ukraine was invaded?

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine held about one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. In total approximately 1,700 warheads remained on Ukrainian territory. However, while Ukraine had physical control of the weapons, it did not have operational control, as they were dependent on Russian-controlled electronic Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system. They were in that sense in effect useless to Ukraine.

Several NPT signatories have given up nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons programs. The former Soviet Republics where nuclear weapons had been based, namely Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, transferred those weapons to Russia and joined NPT by 1994 following the signature of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. The signatories of the Budapest Memorandum are the United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. France and China also provided Ukraine with assurances similar to the Budapest Memorandum.

If you are complaining about countries not acting to meet their assurances, the first complaint should be about the Russian Federation. Also, there is no reason to limit placing 'blame' (in sofar a one can speak of that in this case) on the US. You haven't seen China jumping in 'to save the day' for Ukraine either, have you now?

 

[FlyCheatter]

...well, it's just a typical 'nice'-doing of US officials to play the game of accusing someone of things they doing on nearly daily basic; yep, once Russian int.bombers/warships appear in int. waters somewhat "close" to (may be still very far away) form US waters, their jets're doing exactely the same "aggressive and erratic" rolls; it's rather a political game, nothing more (for internal us-people consumption, demonising Russia as the current tendency)

 

[A.P. Richelieu]

Where do you think Russia would be without its nukes? Russia is an equal as far as the US is concerned because of her nukes. Ukraine trusted the sweet 'assurances' of the US under the pretext of the NPT and surrendered her Nukes and it didn't take long to pay the price. Where was uncle sam with its assurances when Ukraine was invaded?

Ukraine trusted the sweet 'assurances' of Russia.
As a result, Russian Economy is going down the drains.
Oil price took another hike downwards the last few days...

Neither Israel, India nor Pakistan have signed the treaty, and are not bound by it.
Iran has signed the treaty and must therefore abide by it.

 

[Penguin]

...well, it's just a typical 'nice'-doing of US officials to play the game of accusing someone of things they doing on nearly daily basic; yep, once Russian int.bombers/warships appear in int. waters somewhat "close" to (may be still very far away) form US waters, their jets're doing exactely the same "aggressive and erratic" rolls; it's rather a political game, nothing more (for internal us-people consumption, demonising Russia as the current tendency)

Flying 30ft from a ship bridge is not 'somewhat close' but damn close. Repeated low level attack runs (in the tenths) isn't reponsible behavior either. There is a 1973 treaty between the two countries which specificially forbids this kind of stuff.

Show us the aggessive and erratic rolls by US aircraft intercepting Russian aircraft.
Show us the dangerous and unprofessional veigned attack runs by US jets against Russian ships.

And, does Putin not have a domestic audience to cater to?

I do hope you reralize there is a difference betwen a professional intercept and a reckless intercept (i.e. there being intercepts is NOT the issue) If US aircraft are doing similar 'intercepts' of aircraft and - more notworthy - of ships as seen in the past days, as you apparently claim, then how come Russia doesn't talk about that? Why don't you produce footage and/or reports documenting such US 'wild and reckless' intercepts that you claim happen. If there is no such evidence, how come? Don't the Russians have camera's of their own? In fact, in its responses to the US complaints, the Russian government has not put anything forward that supports your claim.

 

[Schutz]

Who cares about nukes, no one is using them, its world over if they do which nobody wants. Apparently during the cold war the Russians had a proper "doomsday" device, a battleship/destroyer filled with nuclear material, enough to pretty much wipe out all life on the planet, I wouldnt be surprised.

 

[phantomrush]

Flying 30ft from a ship bridge is not 'somewhat close' but damn close. Repeated low level attack runs (in the tenths) isn't reponsible behavior either. There is a 1973 treaty between the two countries which specificially forbids this kind of stuff.

Show us the aggessive and erratic rolls by US aircraft intercepting Russian aircraft.
Show us the dangerous and unprofessional veigned attack runs by US jets against Russian ships.

And, does Putin not have a domestic audience to cater to?

I do hope you reralize there is a difference betwen a professional intercept and a reckless intercept (i.e. there being intercepts is NOT the issue) If US aircraft are doing similar 'intercepts' of aircraft and - more notworthy - of ships as seen in the past days, as you apparently claim, then how come Russia doesn't talk about that? Why don't you produce footage and/or reports documenting such US 'wild and reckless' intercepts that you claim happen. If there is no such evidence, how come? Don't the Russians have camera's of their own? In fact, in its responses to the US complaints, the Russian government has not put anything forward that supports your claim.

American submarines trying to enter the Area-based SSBNs that are inside the territorial waters of Russia. often it comes to physical contact and prevention of discharges of depth charges. There were cases of battering ram, when the protection of submarine squeezed Americans from the area of action of SSBNs.
Add to this that the American ships come close to the Russian bases, less than 60 km away.
Permanent mission of scouts from the Russian border. Permanent military aircraft escorting Russian leaders. Therefore, now all the leadership of Russia, accompanied by flying the Su-27. The last case was recently.
For a long time the Americans did not fulfill its obligations. And oniyavlyayutsya violators of these agreements.