Posted on 04/16/2016 2:54:32 PM PDT by jazusamo
Video at link. A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft on Thursday in the latest military provocation by Moscow over the Baltic Sea, the U.S. European Command said Saturday.
The U.S. aircraft, a militarized Boeing 707 jet, was operating in international airspace and at no time crossed into Russian territory, said the Navy, as reported first by The Washington Free Beacon.
“On April 14, a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” Navy Capt. Danny Hernandez on Saturday told Fox News and other new gathering agencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Our government restarted the Cold War against them for some reason, so I suppose this is to be expected to continue.
It’s weird - I expected them to be our allies after the Berlin Wall fell. What happened that we’re back to this?
Kosovo.
“Everyone views Obama as weak, except for Congressional Republicans. They’re his little bitch”
Well said.
WTF are we doing in the Baltic?
They’ve got him pegged as “never going to do anything”.
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Putin has measured Obama and concluded that he is weak and does not want to deal with any provocation, no mater how aggressive, in his time remaining in office. Just a matter of time until there is a serious military incident. Putin knows his window of opportunity might close if America decides to elect a real president who won’t be trifled with. So for Putin, its game on.
Like we don't pull cr**
IIRC, our boys did a little wandering recently....and we were also provoking the Chinese
When you advertise to the world that you’re a pussy, then expect what you get.
Thanks a lot, King obama.
Part of the Clinton bombing Christians thing.
Worse yet, he measured the American people who voted twice for the dipwad.
Worse yet, he measured the American people who voted twice for the dipwad.
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Winston Churchill famously said “The Americans Will Always Do the Right Thing…After They Have Exhausted All the Alternatives.” It looks like Churchill was wrong about us.
If Putin decides to bust a move against us, others may follow. I shudder to think about. But its becoming a very real possibility.
Side-scanning imaging radar?
Active Duty ping.
Pretty soon there will be a crash or collision of some kind, and Obama will apologize to the Russians for causing it, when it will clearly be the russki flyboy’s fault.
Yeah, I think that’s where it is. If we could hear from Struwwelpeter, he’d tell us a bit more. Haven’t seen him in a long, long time.
The SR-71 carried side-scan radar, but didn’t have those big blisters.
RC-135 Rivet Joint; SIGINT platform; collects both COMINT and ELINT. RJ has been flying these missions for decades, off the Russian coastline in Europe and the Far East.
For almost as long, there have been unwritten rules about how the missions and intercepts are conducted. RJ flys a predictable race track orbit in international airspace; Russian fighters close to within visual range and may position themselves off the wingtip or slightly behind the wing line, just above or below the flight level of the RC-135. Neither side conducts aggressive or unexpected moves. The RJ crew does their job, and the Russian fighter pilots do theirs.
But Putin has changed the rules. He clearly wants an incident, correctly assessing that Obama will not respond. BTW, NATO maintains an “air policing” force in the Baltics, and they have the capability to respond to Russian provocations. As far as I can tell, the RAF Typhoons and Portugal F-16s currently on that mission did not respond to either the RC-135 incident or the buzzing of the Donald Cook. And it wasn’t because NATO was unaware; senior commanders saw the whole thing unfold via the radar/SIGINT displays in the CAOC at Ramstein. It appears the air policing fighters were kept on the ground to “avoid” further escalation.
If we’re lucky, a RC-135 will come back with some of its wing missing. If we’re less fortunate, some Russian jet jock will miss his low approach and clip the top of a US vessel, or plow into an RJ at altitude. Not that Putin’s concerned; at worse, we’ll send a sharply-worded diplomatic protest.
My exact first thought too.
There's nothing there to measure, even the pubic hair is very shot.
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