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posted by martyb on Monday November 02 2015, @02:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-are-you-looking-at? dept.

CNN reports that the US Navy launched four armed F/A-18 fighter jets to intercept two Russian Tu-142 Bear aircraft that were flying near the 100,000-ton aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan while it was participating in a bilateral training exercise with South Korea in the Pacific Ocean. "It is standard operating procedure for U.S. planes to escort aircraft flying in the vicinity of U.S. Navy ships," says Navy Cmdr. William J. Marks. "This type of interaction is not unprecedented. Overall I would characterize the interaction as safe." The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered USS Reagan is essentially a floating airport, complete with an air traffic control center that tracks and communicates with nearby aircraft. When the carrier engages in flight operations, it institutes a carrier control zone, which extends up to 2,500 feet and within a five-mile radius, according to the Navy's flight training instruction carrier procedures.

The lack of communication by the Russian aircraft conflicted with general aviation practice. Even commercial airports of any significant size generally expect two-way radio contact when aircraft fly as close as the Russians did, according to international aviation guidelines. Encounters such as these were common during the Cold War. They subsided with its end but picked up again under current Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Over the last few years and particularly this year and last year, with the start of the Ukraine crisis, Russia has picked up the number of sorties," says Nick de Larrinaga. adding that Putin wants to show Russia is "still a global military power and a force to be reckoned with."


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 02 2015, @04:24PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 02 2015, @04:24PM (#257567)

    The Russians should have been identified and intercepted

    With respect to the latter, its highly likely that telling them to F with the Russians would lead to worse outcomes than just letting them overfly. Like mid air collisions or whatever. Politically just not worth it.

    Given that admirals always gear up to fight the last war, superficially they should have freaked that an overflight could have resulted in 500 pound WWII era dumb gravity bombs being dropped. However for at least a naval career or two the real threat has been supersonic anti-ship missiles and air launched torps and laser guided bombs, so an overflight no longer means as much in (current year) as it used to in 1944, so big yawn.

    Overflights for spying are also irrelevant because of post 1970s or so surveillance satellites. I think the Russians have seen the flight deck of our carriers a couple times... nothing new there. In 1945 that could have been very useful spy data, but its (current year) now.

    There is also the arrogance factor. Sure, overfly us... make my day. "Look how we overpower you 10:1 in legacy mid 1900s military technology, if 1945 comes back around again you are so F'ed." "why, you're going to have to shoot at least ten anti-ship missiles to destroy our entire carrier fleet, not just one" Reminds me of Cyrus the great's recon/spy troops freaking when they saw the Spartans guarding the pass of Thermopylae chilling out rather than getting anxious.

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