When he hit it, he certainly would.

for the people with a short memories...:ugh:

Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog

I wouldn't give that fool the time of day, never mind generate any click-through revenue for the 'thinking man's Sunday Sport'.

I suspect from your post you have not flown any actual intercepts. Intercepting any target at high altitude and Mach is very difficult. It would be almost impossible if you did not have a huge thrust and speed advantage. Most intercepts are done from the forward quarter and it takes very careful coordination to time a intercept turn and join on a target cruising at .83 Mach. In most cases the interceptor is also climbing. It takes tremendous power to sustain a 3G turn at 35000 feet while climbing. Running down a target from behind in a jet only capable of .9 mach would take forever if you elected a stern conversion.

The reason Swedish agencies are concerned about this Russian military aircraft activity is, as stated, the pollitical implications. I am a bit surprised when F-16GUY seem to implicate that the Danish take this event lightly, I hope I misunderstood. It is serious business to have military equipment trawling around in busy airspace without alerting anyone. This is not only about aircraft safety. I do not know if Russian military planes have the ability to see our civilian jets without being seen themselves. I for sure hope they do because then the imminent danger to both aircrafts would be somewhat reduced. As someone said - a mid air collision with an A320 and some Ilyushin snooper would surely be portrayed as "evil Western countries deliberately taking out innocent Russians".

glendalegoon: This would be an easy solution for the US, I am sure. I won't go into long discussions about it now, but due to our geographical position it isn't that easy for us Swedes. Sweden is not as big as the US, nor are we as dominant as the UK. We are not rich like Germany or stubbornly proud as France. Thus we just can't afford it because we're stuck between a rock and a hard place, politically.

Someone asked about Japan. I would like to know how the activity has been in Alaska these days. Anyone who knows?

I just found an article about the Russian ambassador in Denmark. According to his statement this whole incident never happened.

Article in Swedish: Ryske ambassadören: ?Svenskarna röker för mycket gräs? | Nyheter | Aftonbladet

Article in Danish: Ambassadør: »Lad være med at provokere den russiske bjørn« - Globalt | www.b.dk

From the Swedish article:
Translation:
Vanin suggest that the Swedish accusations [about the close flying aircraft] are part of an orchestrated campaign that tries to picture Russia as a very dangerous neighbour.

From the Danish article:
Translation:

"Every ATC on earth - Danish, Swedish, Polish, Balitc and so on, can see every plane in the air, regardless if they fly with the transponder on. They can see its height and speed and they know that military planes usually fly with the transponder off. Generally, military planes do not communicate with foreign *AAs. NATO flights doesn't communicate with Moscow to tell what they are up to. But we can see them on the radar all the time" says the Russian ambassador.

Either the tanslation is misleading of the Ambassador was fed wrong info possibly for a purpose. As MH270 showed it is unfornutaley not the case.
That said, like in the previous case I think someone in Sweden is blowing this out of proportion in the media , also for a purpose.

MrSnuggles wrote

Tu-95MS Bear H were active off North America during the 8th December.

Sun News : Canadian fighter jets intercept two Russian bombers off the northwestern coast

@MrSnuggles

You misunderstod. We take it very seriusly. Thats why we will scramble our QRA jets every time there is a non squawker and fly up along side of him. That is the best way to make him visible to the civies.:ok:

The Tu-95s were also active around Guam on the 13th December.

Russian Nuclear Bombers Again Buzz Guam | Washington Free Beacon

Russian air force takes first modernised Tupolev bombers - 12/19/2014 - Flight Global

Deep concern
 

This incident is a reason for deep concern here in Poland.

Every such manoeuvre can end up deadly.

The best example is the recent accident in Germany.
In this case the business jet simulating passenger airliner
had just two pilots on board. Both of them died,
the fighter jet landed safely.

On 23 June 2014, a mid-air collision occurred over Olsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, during an exercise simulating the interception of a civilian airliner that was out of radio contact. One of the aircraft consequently crashed; both occupants died. The other aircraft landed safely.

2014 Olsberg mid-air collision - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Best example of what, exactly?

The thread is about an airliner being turned away by ATC from a potential conflict with an unidentified, transponder-less Russian.

That incident doesn't appear to have much, if anything, in common with a practice interception that went wrong.

"I do not know if Russian military planes have the ability to see our civilian jets without being seen themselves."

the pilots probably wouldn't fly without that capability as I doubt they are suicidal