Posted on 02/12/2008 6:59:18 PM PST by Ivan the Terrible
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The chief of the US Navy said Tuesday an overflight of a US aircraft carrier by a Russian bomber off Japan was "benign" and unprovocative, adding that US crew were not called to combat stations.
Admiral Gary Roughead said he had not asked Moscow for an explanation, but offered one of his own: the Russian military is trying to re-emerge as a global force.
"But I did not consider it to be provocative," he said of Saturday's overflight of the USS Nimitz in the western Pacific.
"And, again, the way that our forces responded, our commanders responded, the performance of our systems was exactly what we expected," he added.
One of the bombers overflew the Nimitz at an altitude of 2,000 feet (600 meters), he told reporters at the Pentagon.
Roughead acknowledged that even during the Cold War US forces rarely overflew Russian warships.
But he said the flight of two TU-95 Bear bombers was detected early and alert aircraft were launched in a timely manner.
"The fact that we had such early detection, that we were able to launch our alerts in a very timely way, and when our airplanes joined up on the bombers, it was a very benign flight that came through, and we just latched onto them and followed them on in," he said.
"You know, it's not prudent to fly over an aircraft carrier," he said at another point. "But our situational awareness is such that, as I said, we had good detection, followed them in, and, in my mind, it's not something to go to general quarters over."
Roughead said the incident did not cause the Nimitz to go to general quarters -- a call for a ship's crew to combat stations.
US defense officials said four F-18 fighters intercepted the Russian bombers and escorted them until they had left the area.
Two other TU-95 bombers were intercepted earlier the same day by Japanese F-15 fighters.
Japan issued what it said was a strong protest with Moscow, which denied that its aircraft had ventured into Japanese airspace.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates met the day after the Nimitz incident with Russian Deputy Premier Sergei Ivanov in Munich, Germany, but did not raise it in their talks, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.
"Any expressions of concern will probably be carried out through military-to-military quote 'diplomatic channels,'" State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
But the State Department did not "at this point intend to do anything on behalf of the Department of Defense," McCormack said.
The Russians have decided to resume "some of their long-range aviation flights" using material left over from the Cold War and were keeping "them in good, working order," he said
"But beyond that, I don't think we view it as a particular threat. It is something that we watch, it is something that we watch closely," he said.
Some members of Congress raised concerns about the incident, however, at a hearing with senior Pentagon officials.
Democratic Senator Bill Nelson said it "sounds pretty provocative to me ... that they would be flying over one of our aircraft carrier battle groups and specifically if it were the aircraft carrier itself."
Republican Senator Pete Domenici said Russia was using a flood of oil revenues to re-equip its military forces and re-establish military laboratories.
"And they're pretty modern in terms of what they're building, compared to what we thought over the last decade. And nobody ought to be fooled. They're not built just to be parked up there in the ice lands," he said.
General James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the overflight was unusual, "but not significant in that the practice was done safely, professionally and they were escorted out of the area."
"Now what we're concerned about is, what are the indications of this return to a Cold War mindset -- what are the implications of that activity and how do we best address that?
"We're just trying to now go back and look what message was intended by this overflight," he said.
I think one or two of our B2’s should make a “benign” surprise mission to just outside Russian airspace.....
I suspect that they were probing our defensive radar systems to see if they can detect what frequencies our commuincations and other systems operate. Probably the same reason China confronted us last month. We must have spooked them pretty good when our technology assited Israel with their Syria run a couple months back. Pretty much neutralized the russian-built defense when Isreal attached the Nuke facility in Syria.
Still does. Iranian P-3s flew over us all the time in the gulf last year. Our F/A-18s would intercept them and chase them away and they'd be back the next day. The Iranians got to posture and out pilots got a little practice chasing slow-flying aircraft (a sight to see).
No big deal. The US Navy respects international airspace and waters.
That would work, in my opinion. ;-)
“General James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the overflight was unusual, “but not significant in that the practice was done safely, professionally and they were escorted out of the area.”
I saw this guy’s testimony. Clearly part of “New Navy” and I suspect taking advantage of “Dont ask, Dont tell”.
I suppose if they had dropped a 5000lb bomb on the flight deck, that would have been considered provocative.
How stupid are you people?
That was the message...
Is it policy that an unidentified aircraft can come withing 2000 feet. If no, I want heads to roll as that captain put US personnel at risk.
On the other hand, the captain could have said, “We saw both bombers take off from their bases in eastern Russia at 3:45 this morning. Our advanced radar that the Russians were trying to probe picked them up leaving the Sakhalin Islands whereby they were handed off to the Japanese net, which by the way is now operational. We tracked them to within 50 miles of the ship all the while having our weapons trained on them, waiting to pull the trigger. However, since it was colonel sakrov in the lead tupolev and we know his wife is pregnant, we decided not to shoot. In addition, we managed to gleen some good intel from the Russians flight including flight plan, course, altitude and caught a glimpse of two of their simulated attacks.”
They flew over our carrier without action, thats the message commander headin ass. Is it me or should they relieve everyone who has commented on this?
Calling Jeff Head: Jeff should the Nimitz commander be relieved of duty over this?
1) We need to know what policy that commander was operating under. What are his instructions, policy from his superiors.
2) We need to know more details about this over flight. Was it determined specifically that these aircraft were unarmed and not a threat to the carrier before they flew over the carrier?
3) I believe we need to interdict these aircraft much further out because of the weapons they can potentially carry. Quite frankly, intercepting them 50 miles out is too close if they were so armed. We would not know that for sure until we got there and we need to get there sooner, IMHO, just in case.
But, IMHO, that needs to be the polciy from the Caommand Authority on down and communicated not only to our personnel with the necessary procedures to implement it, but also communicated to all potential agressor nations in no uncertain terms...in which case the local admirals and captains will respond and perfrom accordingly.
But that's just my opinion.
The root cause of nearly every problem in the world right now, is moral cowardice in the west. Every scum on earth is engaged in testing, baiting behavior. As Gasset put it, standing on their heads - pointless behavior engaged in merely because teacher disapproves.
Someone will say, "Oh, but that risks starting a war!" Silly fools. Do you think letting them get away with it, doesn't?
This idiot needs to be fired immediately if not sooner. I wonder if he was at Pearl Harbor in ‘41’
Thank you. I knew a calmer head would prevail. Any new novels in the works? Regards.
Fly-bys are one thing. It’s just the way the Russians play the game. Once a carrier is in range of Russian territory they take it very seriously.
Fly-overs, on the other hand, are a much more serious thumb in the eye.
The way I understand it, a carrier conducting flight operations “owns” the airspace 5 kilometers out from the flight deck in any direction. That’s a simple saftey precaution due to the obvious danger of mid-air collisions.
If the Bear in question actually overflew the flight deck, it’s not benign in any sense I can imagine. Extremely bad manners at best, a direct provocation at worst.
I say, the hell with international airspace.
Make a bubble of a certain distance over, under and around our carriers as they travel.
You break the bubble, you get shot down.
Especially after 9/11/01, no one should get near our carriers.
We can just say we’re trigger happy because we are now a target for the Islamofascists.
And this Naval COO needs to retire. If it were me, I’d be livid and telling Congress I fully intend to shoot down any other Russian pranksters that get to close to my carrier.
I say, the hell with international airspace.
Make a bubble of a certain distance over, under and around our carriers as they travel.
You break the bubble, you get shot down.
Especially after 9/11/01, no one should get near our carriers.
We can just say we’re trigger happy because we are now a target for the Islamofascists.
And this Naval COO needs to retire. If it were me, I’d be livid and telling Congress I fully intend to shoot down any other Russian pranksters that get to close to my carrier.
“...what message was intended by this overflight...”?
I think it’s a pretty clear middle digit from the Russkies, but why don’t we waterboard Putin to find out for sure.
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