Russian fighter jet intercepts US Air Force reconnaissance flight

[Lyneham Lad]

"US files complaint over 'unsafe' and 'aggressive' interception over Poland."
Journalistic hyperbole - the report goes on to state "over the Baltic".

In The Telegraph:-
The US is protesting against the interception of an American reconnaissance plane by a Russian fighter jet last week, calling it "unsafe and unprofessional" amid what it views as increasingly aggressive air operations by Moscow.
Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright on Sunday said the US was filing a complaint to Russia after the April 7 incident over the Baltic Sea.
Russian officials have denied their pilot did anything wrong, according to several news reports.
According to the Pentagon, the US RC-135U plane was flying in international airspace north of Poland. US officials say a Russian SU-27 fighter intercepted the US aircraft at a high rate of speed from the rear, and then proceeded to conduct two more passes using "unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvres" in close proximity.
"Unprofessional air intercepts have the potential to cause harm to all aircrews involved. More importantly, the careless actions of a single pilot have the potential to escalate tensions between countries," Wright said.
"This air activity takes place in the context of a changed security environment in view of Russia's aggression against Ukraine," he said.
It is not the first time the US has protested to Moscow over what it considered to be an unsafe intercept. Last April, a Russian fighter jet intercepted a US reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk.

Interesting Opinion article in today's Times.
We're dancing to the tune of puppet-master Putin. (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4409128.ece?shareToken=defda17f003195ce9699ccb067e9c9 56)

[melmothtw]

Covered here also - Russia and US trade blows over Baltic interception - IHS Jane's 360 (http://www.janes.com/article/50590/russia-and-us-trade-blows-over-baltic-interception)

[HAS59]

Does anyone know which side the Flanker passed by from behind? Was it on the port side (friendly gesture) or the starboard side (go away gesture). Or do these 'rules' not apply any more?

[JW411]

Port: Friendly, Starboard: Go Away.

Now I never knew that before. I spent a week going up and down the Berlin Corridors in April 1965 at minimum level in an Argosy being intercepted by Russian MIG-19s. (The Russians were objecting to Willi Brandt, the Mayor of Berlin, trying to hold a Bundestag meeting in Berlin which was illegal according to the rules of the day).

I was a co-pilot at the time and I was a bit surprised that the first (and all subsequent) MIG-19s appeared on the starboard wingtip. I thought at the time that it might have been better if he had come up the port side so that he could go through the intercept signals directly with the captain.

So where does the Port; Friendly, Starboard; Not Friendly come from?

On a lighter note, when we got intercepted the first time, I drew my captain's attention to what we had on the starboard wingtip. His reaction was to apply full power which got us all of another 11 knots!

[papajuliet]

"fighter jet" - does The Telegraph think that the Russians still have piston engine fighters?
That phrase is so often used in the news media generally that one can only despair at their ignorance.

[melmothtw]

Oh don't be so daft papajuliet. There are many things you can bash the Telegraph and other media for if that's so important to you, but doing so for using the term 'fighter jet' is just a little bit pernickety even by PPRunE standards.

It's a common enough term, and one that is very much in the popular vernacular.

[MPN11]

Just another ratcheting up of tension?

UK = Bromide in Teapot
RU = Testosterone in Samovar

Or is this just a manifestation of an ill-disciplined Air Force?

[TEEEJ]

Radio enthusiasts in the Baltic were monitoring the incident. The RC-135 was in contact with ATC and was also broadcasting regular intentions on 243.0. The Su-27 was using 130.750 for GCI.

FlightRadar24 tweeted to Russia Today that the RC-135 had its transponder on.

@RT_com The US aircraft had transponder ON.
Transponder code: AE01D5
Registration: 64-14849
Callsign: TELEX97
5:38 PM - 11 Apr 2015

Image of the RC-135U returning to Mildenhall at following Russia Today link.

US recon aircraft intercepted by Russian fighter jet over Baltic - Pentagon ? RT News (http://rt.com/news/248837-us-reconnaissance-aircraft-intercepted/)

[papajuliet]

melmothtw - sloppiness and inaccuracy might be acceptable in your world [ journalism?] - it isn't in mine.

[melmothtw]

'Jet fighter' is neither sloppy nor inaccurate, papajuliet. If you're going to be pedantic (and I see that you are), it's about the most accurate term there is for a fighter aircraft powered by a jet.

[papajuliet]

But it isn't "jet fighter" that's being said - it's "fighter jet". If that is acceptable why not say "fighter piston" rather than "piston fighter", or more usually, "piston engine fighter" [ to which I have no objection]?

[melmothtw]

Jet fighter or fighter jet, it really doesn't matter.

Google "Fighter Jet" papajuliet, and you'll get 8,750,000 results (it will only take you 0.66 seconds as it happens).

That is all.

[TBM-Legend]

Bit like Sabre and Sabre Jet!

this name started I believe when jets were replacing piston powered thingies..

[dagenham]

Ah yes, but there is

1. F86 sabre - fighter jet
2. F100 Super Sabre - faster fighter jet with knobs on, or at least big flame thing
3. Napier Sabre - piston engine that powered the piston fighter typhoon as opposed to Fighter jet typhoon - not to be confused with "messerschimdt taifun" which was a liaison piston aircraft
4. Sabre liner - Business jet or may be a us airforce liaison jet / spook flight

taxi for Dageham.... taxi for Dagenham

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

In all fairness to melmothtw, "fighter jet" grips mine as well. If they must use kiddyspeak, "jet fighter" would at least make sense. It's in the same league as calling a certain 3 wheeler car a "Robin Reliant" Get it wrong often enough and long enough, the buggers who edit our dictionaries will decide it must be right.

At least when G-VLCN rocks up for displays, she isn't announced as a "bomber jet"; yet.

[Haraka]

it's about the most accurate term there is for a fighter aircraft powered by a jet

Considering that the Su-27 isn't powered by "a jet " ........

[ExRAFRadar]

Best we get the words right, after all they are basically all we have left to throw at Putin's Armed Forces

[Wetstart Dryrun]

Is there not a requirement for it to jump before it may be considered a jet?

[Martin the Martian]

I much prefer 'high speed whizzy pointy thing making lots of noise with whooshy things under the wings' myself, but I'll settle for fighter jet, despite how anachronistic an expression it seems to some.

With regard to international rules on intercepting aircraft, I think the Russians threw that particular rulebook in the bin long ago. Just think, 28 years after an Su-27 clipped a P-3's prop because the pilot was being a dick, they're still behaving like a bunch of juveniles on a Saturday night pi$$-up. Discipline would appear to be an unknown concept for the Russian armed forces, which rather makes me wonder how they would fare against a well-armed, well-trained opponent with orders to shoot back and not worried about being outnumbered.

[Background Noise]

Fighter jet isn't that bad - it would be more noteworthy if it had been a bomber jet or a passenger jet, and the OP does mention hyperbole.

However it is surely his title which is misleading. The point is not that those dastardly russians intercepted one of our brave boys (as if we are the only ones allowed to do that) but that the manoeuvre was (allegedly) dangerous. If you are going to close to front-page-photo-opportunity distance, on a passenger aircraft with no escape mechanism, then you need to do it under a modicum of control.

[melmothtw]

Quote:
it's about the most accurate term there is for a fighter aircraft powered by a jet

Considering that the Su-27 isn't powered by "a jet " ........

Right you are Haraka, should of course be 'Fighter jets' or 'Jets fighter'. Oh, wait....:ugh:

[High_Expect]

FFS people... Get a grip!

Anyone know anything more about the incident?

[melmothtw]

Ha, High_Expect, thanks for saying it (though I admit I'm as much to blame as anyone).

As far as I'm aware, there is nothing new to report beyond @flightradar24 pointing out that the RC-135 had its transponder switched ON, so blowing a hole in the Russian argument that it was intercepted so as to be visually identified (though I still don't get why you need to fly within 20 ft to do that, but hey ho).

[Stitchbitch]

Doesn't this twin engined fighter jet have Infra Red Track Scan for visually detecting four engined reconnaissance jets? :E

[Lonewolf_50]

(though I still don't get why you need to fly within 20 ft to do that, but hey ho).
Because it's fun. :ok: If the RC was flying standard straight and level, and smooth as RJ's tend to, it's a stable "lead" for a bit of unbriefed formation flying by our friends in Ivanland.

Don't disagree that getting up close and personal like that is more risk laden -- see the foolish Chinese pilot in the early 00's and what happened between him and the P-3 -- but let me offer this idea:
most fast jet pilots are good enough at formation flying that they can pull it off without it being dangerous.

Should they? Were I his Ops officer, I'd have a word with him about his judgment.

[AreOut]

"Discipline would appear to be an unknown concept for the Russian armed forces,"

looking how green guys performed on Crimea during the takeover I'd have to disagree

they are still not up to NATO standards but far better than 30 years ago

[ShotOne]

Ah diddums, did the nasty Russian plane make a scary noise? Tell you what, try flying a big aeroplane with red stars painted on it the same distance off the Florida coast as this was from the Russian Coast and see what happens.

[Lonewolf_50]

Ah diddums, did the nasty Russian plane make a scary noise? Tell you what, try flying a big aeroplane with red stars painted on it the same distance off the Florida coast as this was from the Russian Coast and see what happens. Most likely a friendly visit from the Air National Guard, in a Viper. :ok:

[Roland Pulfrew]

Most likely a friendly visit from the Air National Guard

So part timers with their fair share of cowboys ;)

[rh200]

FFS people... Get a grip!

No, we must get the important things sorted :E

Anyway, to be fair, do we know any real facts, and there was that little incident a few years ago with Chinese. You know the one witch resulted in the Chinese needing to help export one of your aircraft back:p.

So getting a bit twitchy about potential stuff ups may be reasonable.

[Rhino power]

Most likely a friendly visit from the Air National Guard, in a Viper.

Don't the FL ANG fly the Eagle? :8

-RP

[O-P]

...and the Hawaii ANG fly the Raptor!!!

[ShotOne]

The aircraft type isn't the most erroneous bit; it's the word "friendly"

"I don't get why you need to fly within 20'..." I'm looking at a picture of a Bear with an RAF Typhoon, at my best estimate, 20' off his stbd wing.

[Reinhardt]

What was this RC-135 doing in the Baltic, anyway, and without transponder ? .... in fact they were behaving the same way as they complain than the Russians do, in the same area - except that US doesn't have a border in the Baltic (or in the Black Sea)


Being neither American or Russian, I therefore have the right to choose my friends.

[melmothtw]

What was this RC-135 doing in the Baltic, anyway, and without transponder ?

Read the thread first Reinhardt, and you'll see that it had its transponder switched ON.

This is how RT works - put the lie out there and Putin's useful idiots will propagate it.

[Reinhardt]

Give me a good reason to believe in NATO more than in Russia !

and the fact that this forum is in English is not one...

Also please stop qualify as idiots people who don't share your point of view, that's not very mature.
Unbelievers in weapons of mass destruction in Irak were also called idiots 12 years ago, by the same people...

[TEEEJ]

Reinhart wrote,

and without transponder ?

The RC-135 was also in contact with ATC and broadcasting on guard frequency. The info was posted on a radio enthusiast forum by a Russian radio enthusiast.

http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/559815-russian-fighter-jet-intercepts-us-air-force-reconnaissance-flight.html#post8942469

[melmothtw]

Give me a good reason to believe in NATO more than in Russia !

See TEEEJ's response above.

Also please stop qualify as idiots people who don't share your point of view, that's not very mature.

Useful idiot is a term for people who are not aware that they are being cynically used as propagandists for a cause. 'Stalin's useful idiots' was attributed during the Cold War to those in the West who vocally bought into the myth of the Soviet utopia, but who were (willfully) blind to the repression, deportations, Gulags, etc.

I did not mean to refer to you personally as an idiot, but this may have got lost in translation, so apologies for that.

[Lonewolf_50]

So part timers with their fair share of cowboys ;)

Have you ever operated with the ANG? I got to work with a couple of their squadrons in real world OIF ops. Your assessment is bollox. :p

[HAS59]

I can't remember where I first heard this Port Side = Hello etc ...


I do have the photos taken in the Straights of Hormuz of Iranian P-3K's flying alongside our MPA's. Some of the passes to port included them lowering their undercarriage while waving and smiling.
The passes to starboard were usually from height astern and made at a greater speed although always conducted safely.


The same rules were not always applied by the Russian Navy, who were always a bit cavalier, although the Russian Air Force Foxhounds and Flankers behaved in a Port=Friendly, Starboard=Go Away fashion.


Curious to know if anyone other than MPA people experienced this ... or gave it any thought ... when it happened.

[ShotOne]

Is this port/starboard business written down anywhere? The only reference I can find is the ICAO Annexe which states that the interceptor will normally place themselves to the left of the intercepted aircraft.

[dagenham]

Texas, hear hear a fine band of operators who are nearly always very impressive.:ok:

Also, I have heard excellent at finding candidates for fast track promotion, there was a guy called George W can remember his surname. Got quite a big job didn't end well though...:eek:

[Lonewolf_50]

Texas, hear hear a fine band of operators who are nearly always very impressive.:ok:
Is it hear, hear or here, here? (http://grammarist.com/spelling/hear-hear/) No fair opening the link (http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6690/hear-hear-or-here-here) before answering. :cool:
Also, I have heard excellent at finding candidates for fast track promotion, there was a guy called George W can remember his surname. Got quite a big job didn't end well though...:eek: Suggest you get back under the bridge.