Posted on 06/17/2021 7:50:19 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
A report has emerged that major Russian naval maneuvers were underway in the Pacific when U.S. Air Force F-22A Raptor stealth fighters were scrambled from their base in Hawaii over the weekend, an incident you can read more about in The War Zone’s initial reporting. The Raptors were supposedly launched to investigate unspecified Russian long-range aircraft, part of a group of naval vessels and aircraft that were participating in a large-scale exercise around 300 to 500 miles west of the Hawaiian islands. The incident came immediately ahead of today’s summit meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.
The pair of F-22s was launched this past Sunday on an alert scramble out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam at around 4:00 PM local time. They were joined by a third Raptor soon after and also had refueling support from a KC-135 tanker during their mission. The reported Russian aircraft that prompted all of this did not enter the Hawaiian Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) at any point and were not intercepted, according to CBS News, which reported this additional information.
U.S. military officials had previously described was described as an “irregular patrol" that was initiated at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but with no immediate indication as to why the jets had actually scrambled. The FAA has since remained tight-lipped, offering little more than the following terse comment in response to The War Zone’s repeated requests for more details:
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
Hawaii-Based F-22s Scrambled On FAA's Request But Nobody Will Say Why (Updated) The alert mission was described as an "irregular patrol" with no indication of what prompted it.
Were the Raptors loaded with ordinance?
We really should not know about or discuss air defense operations, just sayin’.
Just the usual report to make us nervous. 300-400 miles...Actually sounds like we shouldn’t have been aroused.
They were fully armed with anti-white supremacy brochures.
Cool
That’s true. Eric Swalwell might read this story and pass it on to his Chinese honeypot.
I was thinking of posting this article earlier - thanks
As the War Zone makes clear, the reporting for their article comes from CBS news sources; so far no government agencies have released any info.
They weren’t Russian long range aircraft. They were the Tic Tac UFOs they went after.
That was Putin testing Biden right before the summit.
Having Russian aircraft vary out of open airspace into controlled is not new. I was stationed at a site in Alaska in the mid 80’s at a small location that had a combat alert cell (CAC) with F-15 eagles on ready. At one time there were a number of CACs in Alaska but are now shut down as the chase work goes to two bases in the state.
The radar control is now covered by Northwest Aerospace Defense at McChord and is supported by PAVE PAWS, the nearest to NWADS is at Beale AFB north of Sacramento, CA. The CAC in Hawaii has been flying F-22s since 2007 and is the only F-22 active duty alert cell in operation and they fall under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, HIANG Headquarters, 154th Wing, 201st Air Operations Group, 298th Air Defense Group and OL-A, National Guard aircraft. Just another day at the beach for these guys as this happens often. The only difference is that this may be Putin’s way of squaring off against Biden who he feels is weak and with good reason. There will be more of these that you may or may not hear about.
wy69
No indication of how many Russian Ships were involved, how many planes? If it was two or three leaky tubs with tug boats to tow them back to Russia we need not worry.
Lol. If what passes for the Russian Navy wants to take on the US Pacific fleet they are more than welcome.
Bigger question is why the FAA was supposedly the one asking for the response. Where the hell were our military radar/sonar/satellite assets supposedly tracking this stuff?
“Questions Remain After Report That F-22s Scrambled Due To Major Russian Naval Exercise Near Hawaii...”
Oh excellent..that was a Russian probing exercise. Now they know how we’ll react, with what, critical radio and electronic frequencies etc. Oh well why not? Joe just gave Vlad a list of 16 crucial targets to hit.
IIRC it was the FAA that called for the scramble. Much strange about this matter so far.
If as the reports suggest the Russian aircraft never actually entered the ADIZ... I’d guess we were “tracking” them with ground radar. But if a commercial aircraft or radar picked them up the scramble order may have gone out to shoo them away from proximity to civilian aircraft.
TASS reported that this task force covered a distance of 2,500 miles from its various naval bases and that it included the Udaloy class destroyers Admiral Panteleyev and Marshal Shaposhnikov, the Steregushchiy class corvettes Gromky, Sovershenniy and Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov, as well as embarked Ka-27PL Helix anti-submarine warfare helicopters.
This suggests that the aircraft that the F-22s were scrambled to investigate may have been one of the long-range bomber types operated by the Russian Aerospace Forces, or perhaps a Russian Navy Tu-142 Bear long-range maritime patrol aircraft.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2021/06/16/officials-say-f-22s-launched-off-hawaii-response-russian-naval-exercise/
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