Originally Posted by
londonman
"Not apples to apples, that was a shoot down, and it wasn't (as far as I can tell) the Russians."
Oh, please. There is no difference between Russians and Ukraine "separatists" .
On second thought, I am not going to go down this rat hole. I see a (political) distinction you don't, so be it.
@ West Coast: a collision is a risk of the game being played, just as it was during the Cold War when this was a routine deal. The game is political, and the topic is willy waving and "probing" just as before. Same Stuff, different day, no big deal, for professionals. For journos and hand wringers ... what isn't a big deal? We live in the age of drama queens.
The Vincennes should never have been where it was
Wrong, Beags. It was in the PG and at that location due to its mission.
The argument on whether or not Vincennes should have done what it did is another matter (to include the wisdom of engaging in that particular surface action) which I note has brought the usual suspects out, and the usual amount of utter tripe. For example, your fellow traveler:
Robocruiser is right. A USN carrier was not to far away at the time and well
within range to send a section of F-14s or F-18s to check out the contact. The
problem was the air wing knew of the cruisers reputation and didn't want to go
near it in case it shot at them. Another point is the contact was thought to be
an F-14 and the crew of a USN air defence ship should well know that a Tomcat (
at the time ) has next to zero capability to hurt a ship. M61 20mm cannon only
and the jet would be well within visual range by the time it was close enough to
use
A lot of wrong in one paragraph.
He also forgets that the USN had a certain paranoia in the Persian Gulf at the time due to the previous year's USS Stark attack, a lethal mistake by Saddam's air force ... or so the Iraqi story went.
The criticism of the Captain within the USN was considerable.
USNI
Proceedings, which was once a journal where a lot of professional discussion/debate etc went on had numerous articles pro and con, the CO of the USS Sides being not the only one who was very critical of Captain R.
Further criticisms of some of the outright crap posted on this topic is edited in an effort to remind self, and others, that this thread is about Russians flying near to the UK's air space.