Posted on 10/29/2015 11:59:58 AM PDT by tcrlaf
Two Russian warplanes flew within one mile of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, forcing the U.S. Navy to launch four fighter jets in response Tuesday, a Navy spokesman told Fox News.
The USS Reagan was sailing in international waters east of the Korean peninsula, Stars and Stripes reports. It adds that the U.S. is currently engaged in joint military exercises with South Korea.
The Russian "Bear Bombers" approached the aircraft carrier at an elevation of 500 feet Tuesday morning, according to Navy spokesman Commander William Marks. He said U.S. F/A-18 Super Hornets escorted the Russian planes as they transited out of the area.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There’s been one other advance in radar, but it’s not actually anything to do with the actual radar transceivers or anything like that. It’s in the area of networking and it makes strategic aircraft stealth impossible.
Basically, if you link a bunch (three at a minimum) of radar systems over a wide area together with a computer you make what’s a virtual very large radar array. Once you do that, you can detect stealth aircraft trying to sneak in because moving ‘holes’ in the coverage suddenly become obvious. It’s enough to tell you generally where the aircraft is and to vector interceptors to go look at it, not good enough to lock on and fire guided missiles at.
Tactical stealth is still valid - it’s still a good thing to be flying an airplane that your enemies’ air to air missiles can’t get a lock on. Sadly, strategic stealth against an alerted enemy is much degraded now.
Clearly, the intent was to deafen the crew.
Yup. But further retrofitting of the Typhoon (another name for the Mod 2) was stopped by the sequester and we have many surface combatants that have RAM launchers instead of Phalanx but no Typhoon.
Probably had his hands tied by Obama Administration directives. Not his fault in that case.
At one mile you have already fired all your missiles and are lining up for strafing/kamikaze run. In this day and age an attacking aircraft would not get within one mile of a naval target, they would have already launched.
This sort of thing happened all the time during the Cold War.
The only way anyone would be sh*tcanned would be if the aircraft wasn’t identified, tracked and intercepted until it was already overhead.
Which actually DID happen several years ago when the Russians overflew the Kitty Hawk with some Sus. And the only plane ready to launch for intercept was an EA-6B ... 8-o
“Actually, there is. If you *can* get that close, even dumb bombs can render a flight deck unusable of if you’re lucky cause secondary explosions that can sink a ship. You can gravity-drop conventional bombs that are far more powerful than anything you can stuff on the nose of a bomber-carried missile.”
True, but Russkies aren’t going to commit suicide, even if it is for their beloved Pooty Poot.
I know this is highly unlikely, but what if agents friendly to Islamic causes had infiltrated the Russian military and took control of a Russian bomber, to create an incident between Russia and the U.S.A.? A Bond movie scenario, but another reason to not let unfriendly planes approach.
wow.. incredible stuff they come up with!! me must be ahead with all the money we spend. or is that naive?
Rules of engagement from politicians. If you cannot see the aircraft, it’s not really a big deal.
Too bad they don’t carry the old 40mm pom-pom antiaircraft guns anymore.
500 meters range would be duck soup. Hell, the M2 Browning .50 cal would do the trick at that range. That might not down a bomber but wold DEFINITELY get their attention.
Too bad they don’t carry the old 40mm pom-pom antiaircraft guns anymore.
500 meters range would be duck soup. Hell, the M2 Browning .50 cal would do the trick at that range. That might not down a bomber but wold DEFINITELY get their attention.
Geez...do we REALLY want to go back to those days, especially with the POS in the White House who might do something stupidly rash.
I’ll bet SOMEONE’S sphincter tightened when that red flare was shot across your bow, so to speak!
Freedom of Navigation in International Waters.
Isn’t that exactly what we demonstrated to the Chinese on Tuesday, with the Lassen?
I remember being back near the ramp on the JFK, my plane being parked back there. There were Soviet trawlers a mile or two away, and when we looked at them with my binoculars, there were about half a dozen people as I recall, looking back at us with binoculars.
We pulled our pants down and mooned them, them grabbed the binoculars to look, but there was not even a smidgen of activity. Still all looking at us with binoculars as if they were made of plywood.
We didn’t come up with it. The Australians were the first to formally and openly notice it.
These days, the Russians will sell you a bunch of S-300 missile batteries with datalink-enabled radars.
that part about the russians doesn’t sound good,.
Isn’t that exactly what we demonstrated to the Chinese on Tuesday, with the Lassen?
It is one thing to sail a ship over an artificial line in the water, and something wholly different to approach an ultra-expensive, nuclear-armed ship with a crew of 5,000 with a bomber. The one presents no threat except to the dignity of the country on one side of the line, and the other literally risks WW3.
So, no, I don't agree with you.
I'll give you that...but it is also easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. You do what's right to protect your ship and crew, and worry about the fallout later.
Isn’t that exactly what we demonstrated to the Chinese on Tuesday, with the Lassen?
Exactly.
I've seen Iranian P-3s fly over us all the time when I was deployed on Eisenhower. Happens all the time. We're the ones in their back yard. They fly over us and we send some fighters to assist them in moving along.
The people mystified that we didn't shoot the Russian plane out of the sky don't understand how this stuff works. A Russian bomber has as much right to be in international airspace as we do in international waters. Shooting it down would've been an act of war.
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