Posted on 04/14/2014 10:18:28 AM PDT by traumer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Russian fighter jet made multiple, close-range passes near an American warship in the Black Sea for more than 90 minutes Saturday amid escalating tensions in the region, U.S. military officials said Monday.
In the first public account of the incident, the officials said the Russian Fencer made 12 passes, and flew within 1,000 yards of the USS Donald Cook, a Navy destroyer, at about 500 feet above sea level.
The U.S. warship issued several radio queries and warnings using international emergency circuits, but the Russian aircraft did not respond.
"This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with international protocols and previous agreements on the professional interaction between our militaries," said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Yup, which is quite a task.
This time they sent an obsolete, expendable aircraft to test our defenses and see what we would do so if we shot it down it would be no big loss.
Eventually, one of these fine days, after months of sending unarmed and obsolete aircraft to lull us into complacency, they won't be sending flying museum pieces, they will be sending their front line aircraft armed to the teeth.
Then things will get interesting.
Kind of like Operation BOLO in reverse.
International and military use of the Straits
The 1936 Montreux Convention provides for a free passage of civilian ships between the international waters of the Black and the Mediterranean Seas. However, a single country (Turkey) has a complete control over the straits connecting the two seas. The 1982 amendments to the Montreux Convention allow Turkey to close the Straits at its discretion in both wartime and peacetime.
Our response: The Russians are unprofessional. So there....
Yeah. Maybe Zero can bring back the Styrofoam Greek pillars again, and see if that's still true.
Exposure to the relatively benign Cowpox prevented people from getting Smallpox. The best thing about Obama is he and everybody around him are complete clowns. They may be the political equivalent of Cowpox. Now a full-on dose of Stalin and Lenin would be a societal dose of Smallpox. We probably have gotten off light. We’ll have some bad scars but the body politic will survive and have a stronger immune system. (I prefer this scenario over the OHMYGODWE’RE ALLGONNADIE! scenario.)
Goose and Mav lost that lovin’ feeling...
Koreans get insurance discounts for having dashcams - they often call them blackboxes. You can find car crash compilations on youtube
You jest, but that movie was a realistic representation of at least one thing: rules of engagement. In the opening scene, you see the squadron commander scream at the radio operator:
"150 miles! Get 'em out of here! If they break 100 miles, launch the Alert 5 aircraft!"
In the days of Reagan, we didn't let the Evil Empire buzz our ships.
That's a good quote, but he's a coward everywhere.
Great screen grab.
But there are eyewitness accounts of the pilot yelling, "Don't worry - I'm a good & sincere Christian!". So, I think it may have been Putin.
International waters? Hardly.
We can not enter without permission from Turkey, and they can deny it at their discretion.
Plus, according to the Montreux Convention, warships of countries which do not border the Black Sea cannot remain in the waters for longer than 21 days.
Doesn’t sound much like international waters, does it.
I've given this very thing a lot of thought. Things to ponder when I can't sleep at 3am...
I think that things under Carter were likely worse, but we were (obviously) able to recover from them. However, I think that things under BO will be un-recoverable because our "Wonderfully Diverse" nation is a both whole lot more fractured, and worse off financially. So, we may not have hit bottom yet, and we'll be a long time (if ever) climbing out of this hole.
Just my $0.02. YMMV.
I can't believe we elected a communist as president twice, but we did.
The Exocet in the Falklands was a definite wake up call!
That is why the range of interception.
Yep, and our submarines and ASW ships/P3s/UK Nimrods would hound their submarines relentlessly. Actually, all the stories I've heard, I'm really suprised the Russians didn't get fed up and shoot back. However, some say they actually did!.
Nobody fears a Democrat.
*********
Exactly right. Putin is confident that he has the green light, for at least the next three years, to do whatever he wants.
In addition to the trailing Russian frigate, and the fighter jets, there was almost certainly a sub or two in the vicinity of our ship. It would be easy to launch a deadly coordinated attack. All it takes is a fabricated provocation.
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