Germans, Brits, Swedes intercept Rooskis over the Gulf of Finland
One of the planes was a Russian Air Force IL-20 Coot-A intelligence plane which was flying from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad, an enclave which borders Poland. It was being escorted by two Russian SU-27 Flanker-B fighter jets.
A pilot involved in the operation said: “We often see Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea and so this was a routine intercept for us.
“Nevertheless, the importance of intercepting these aircraft and our commitment to the collective defence of Nato airspace remains steadfast and resolute.
“What this intercept has proven is that together with our German allies, we are able to act with speed and decisiveness to effectively ensure the Alliance’s security.”
The three Russian planes were the Estonian flight information region before handing over to Saab Gripen fighters of the Swedish Air Force.
Nice that no one did anything silly, like when that Russian plane pickled off a live (thankfully defective) missile at a Brit RC-135 recon plane in September. MSN That’s a 707 airframe…hard to confuse with a fighter even for the stupid. (No comments about that Iranian airliner we shot down, or KAL-007 needed.)
Sorta wish we could see the transcripts of those radio conversations with their respective bases. I recall a Czech fighter pickling off a heat-seeker at one of our Cobras one dark night when our boy strayed over the Czech border. I am told those were real interesting.
In the case of the Iranians nether the one we shot down nor the one the Iranians shot down recently were visually identified but were hit with SAMs, KAL-007 on the other hand was, and the Rooski pilot couldn’t tell the difference between a 747 and a 707. The fact that they were both 4 engine Boeing products being the lone similarity.
Don’t forget the earlier KAL902
Just another day at the office for the Flyboys. How much longer before some body gets an itchy trigger finger and pickles off a war shot? Business will pick up somewhat then.
Your 100% right, the peeps in the Pentagon and the ones in the new 1000 year Third Reich Reichstag ( WH) who have stocks in the munitions companies would love that
Russians have a habit of shoot first, ask questions later. Looking at Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. It’s only a matter of time before this war, or one in Taiwan, spices things up a little.
It would appear that the Russkies have learned one thing that we never have. Fighter escort for your spook birds keeps them from being shot down, as so many were during the “Cold War”. Over 200 of our spooks and aircrew died in that time frame.
I have two flight tours on recce birds. I didn’t worry about the Russians as much as I worried about the North Koreans. Now they’re some crazy motherfuckers!
They haven’t shot down any aircraft since the 15 April 1969 EC-121 shootdown, but that’s because we stayed wayyy out of their airspace.
We had those wacky Libyans launching on us. Seems fair, we were in their airspace after all.
*cough*
All the more reason for a four plane F18 escort and some aerial refueling. Let the Norks have the Gulf of Sidra experience once or twice.
Oops.
A Navy F-14 Tomcat once shot down an Air Force RF-4C Phantom
“Exercise “Display Determination 87” was supposed to be a routine NATO exercise, pitting U.S. Air Force Phantoms out of Zweibrucken Air Base in West Germany against F-14 Tomcats from the USS Saratoga in the Mediterranean Sea. All the Phantoms had to do was find the Saratoga and engage in an exercise attack, if the Tomcats didn’t find them first.
“The Tomcats only had to fly close enough to the Air Force planes to read their hull numbers. One pilot would do much more than that. In an act the Navy would call “deliberate” and “illogical,” Lt. Timothy Dorsey would engage his Air Force counterparts with a real-world sidewinder missile.
We Are The Mighty
Oops!
We had an excercise once to see how the 3In. 50 rapid fire AA guns on our flight deck forward of the island structure would do tracking F-4 Phantoms. A couple of us Snipes were on the flight deck watching and those planes moved so fast that you couldn’t see them cominy but sure as shootin, you could hear them when they flew over faster than a mailbag at a train whistle stop.
Those F-4 Phantoms coming out of Da Nang would go
right over us just before going vertical. Gotta be one of
the loudest a/c out there.
For absolute earth-shaking noise it’s tough to beat a U-2 taking off.
?
Funny how after the drone was downed by the ruskies they decide that escorting their spy planes was a good idea. Perhaps the woke dod we have might take a freaking hint and do the same between pronoun practice sessions.