Posted on 11/09/2014 12:34:32 PM PST by robowombat
Russian spyplane violates Lithuania airspace, Canadian Hornets intercept it Nov 09 2014
By David Cenciotti
Two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornet jets intercepted and shadowed a Russian Air Force Il-20 Coot over Lithuania. On Nov. 8, two RCAF CF-18 (or CF-188) Hornet jets deployed to Lithuania for NATO Baltic Air Policing mission were radar-vectored to intercept and escort a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 Coot-A plane flying off the Baltic coast.
According to Canadian media outlets, the CF-18s were conducting a routine training sortie out of Siauliai airbase, when they were re-tasked to visually ID the Russian ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) plane that had violated Lithuania’s airspace (even if some sources say the Il-20 was reached by the Canadian Hornets as it was flying over international waters – hence, in international airspace).
The CF-18s shadowed the Il-20 for 5 minutes, took some photographs (not yet released), then were ordered to return to base.
The Il-20 electronic reconnaissance plane is, by far, the Russian aircraft most frequently intercepted by NATO fighter jets in the Baltic region.
On Oct. 20, a Russian Il-20 was intercepted by Royal Canadian Air Force CF-188s scrambled from Siauliai in Lithuania; on Oct. 21, Portuguese AF F-16s, also deployed to Siauliai airbase for NATO Baltic Air Policing mission were scrambled to intercept and shadow an Il-20 Coot intelligence gathering aircraft.
The same type of aircraft was involved in the near-miss incident on Mar. 3, 2014, when SAS flight SK 681, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board from Kastrup – Copenhagen to Rome had to change course in order to avoid colliding into an Il-20, flying without transponder and therefore not visible to the civil Air Traffic Control, about 50 miles to the southwest of Malmö
Hmmm
There are some freepers who would say Russia is just being neighborly
lol
Is the CF 188 the Canadian version of the super hornet?
CC
I’m not a military guy, but am Canadian and have never heard of them referred to as the CF 188, only CF 18
In much the same way Germany was just being neighborly with Poland in1939.
CC
“The target is destroyed.”
Sure, in a 1980s, pre-Glasnost sort of way.
I wonder how many of those Soviet-era mosaics depicting the eventual triumph of Socialism were scraped off the walls and ceilings of Russian public buildings in the intervening years?
Putin wants those things back
The Coot is a rather venerable plane, built between 1959 and 1978.
I have flown in the civilian version of the Coot. The first flight was from East Berlin to Moscow on Interflug, the East German airline, in 1972. The return flight was with the Soviet airline Aeroflot.
Both planes were about as luxurious as a city bus. They were so loud that conversation was difficult, and inside the head, which was midships, the sound was deafening. The inbound flight featured a dinner of cold beef served on a metal tray, but the return flight included a breakfast of hard-boiled eggs with caviar.
I later learned that the reason the airliners were so spartan was so that they could quickly be converted to military use.
I learned that the reason the
Pooty knows the Caliph’s eye is fixed on other concerns.
Start forcing them to land, capture the crews, treat them as pays, and destroy the aircraft. Then this nonsense will stop.
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