Tensions are seemingly always rising between the US and Russia these days, but the latest incident appears to be far more serious, as Russia has released a video showing a US F-16 intercepting the plane of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu over the Baltic Sea, sparking a tense encounter with a Russian Su-27 fighter jet.
Shoigu’s plane was reportedly carrying the defense minister and a number of reporters to a conference in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania. The plane was reportedly escorted by a pair of Su-27s, and the F-16 fighters were scrambled, claiming the plane with the DM on board was not identified and they were trying to make a “visual” identification.
When one of the fighters started getting too close to Shoigu’s plane, a Su-27 flew in between the two and tilted its wings, apparently to underscore that it was armed with anti-aircraft weapons, at which time the F-16 flew off.
That’s not sitting well with Russia at all, as Defense Committee chairman Vladimir Shamanov, who was also the former Commander of Russian Airborne Forces, condemned the incident as “military rudeness” on NATO’s part.
Shamanov insisted it should’ve been readily apparent when the F-16 arrived that a civilian plane with an escort of multiple Su-27s was carrying “protected persons,” and that approaching the plane would be considered unacceptable.
Ultimately, Shoigu’s plane was unharmed, and arrived safely in Kaliningrad. The plane returned home to the Russian mainland escorted by a much larger retinue, this time including a number of Su-34 fighter-bombers, among the most advanced warplanes in the Russian fleet. They apparently went unchallenged.
Well. That was a stupid thing to do.
This was again a tit-fot-tat: first, the US shoots down a Syrian plane, then the Russians threaten to target US assets in Syria, then Russia buzzes a US plane in the Baltic, and now the US returns the favor.
Stupid games. All it will do is anger the Russians even more. Shoigu will be happy to give the order to shoot down a US plane in Syria next time.
Sure he will…wink wink USA
USA, wasting fuel and causing problems everywhere.
Now this sh*t is f**king scary. This is how world wars get started. Through stupid hot-dog bullsh*t.
So what would happen if a Russian fighter plane intercepted Mattis’ plane over the Gulf of Mexico?
Does Russia still have any fighters stationed in Cuba?
Even well-rehearsed jet acrobatic squadrons have occasional hiccups causing dead pilots and scrap aluminum. Some hot dog’s gonna go too far, on purpose or otherwise. This is kind of dangerous in times of No World Order.
Article 5 is a suicide pact.
Ever since Rolling Stone published a series of interviews with McChrystal, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan and his aides — I had an uneasy feeling that we are being led by juveniles, not seasoned people with maturity to match the seriousness of the profession. It does seem that the era of neocons cheapened everything. Even the top commanders are lacking the gravitas needed to justify putting our lives in their hands.
A real soldier doesn’t give a lot of thought to your life, or most any others – particularly enemy ones. If it comes down to a hard choice he chooses survival – if otherwise he’s a dead hero.
Especially when it comes to drones hitting wedding parties and funerals.
No big whoop. The Russian Minister wasn’t flying an exec jet or a commercial airliner – so the military transport – like all such things on most occasions – was relying on the radars – it’s own and everybody elses to ‘inform’. The F16 wanted a look, it got it. But at that distance and assuming it maintained an ‘on station’ relationship , ‘buzzing’ isn’t an appropriate descriptor.
If it had transponders on then it would have been extremely ‘rude’. If it had transponders off, visual contact with the plane is justifiable but not encroachment. It’s not a bomber or a spy plane.
Oh please.
Stupid idiots. What moron is authorizing this stupid bs.
Hmmm, where to start…
Testing the waters and the response was exactly what we thought.USA
Top Gun lives!
The Russians say they are outraged, but they did get cool shots of the F-18 and SU 27.
Guess what: No reference to this “incident” in CNN’s headlines. But the alleged incident a day or two ago was plastered all over the place on the warmongering, Russia-hating MSM.
These fools want us all to die in a nuclear war.
That’s the only possible conclusion to draw from this.
Defeating the Wicked Witch of the West and her neocon lackeys wasn’t enough to stop this.
We’re all gonna die, and its the brain-dead military types who could barely pass high-school that are going to kill us all. They’ll claim they see a “light at the end of the tunnel”, but that’s just the flash from a nuclear fireball. Democracy is dead, and soon we will all join her.
It’s OK, Trump has told The Generals in The Pentagon to do whatever they think is necessary. Doesn’t that make you feel much better?
These people are bats–t insane!!
I know this site doesn’t like a Pro-American point of view but,can you please leave my posts on this site alone.I posted a response on this forum and it’s missing.Please this isn’t Russia this is America an equal opportunity type country stop repressing my comments.USA
I just went to check. None of your recent comments are in the “moderator, please take a look at this” queue, nor are any in the list of deleted comments. It may have been some kind of site or software problem, but nobody is “repressing” your comments, nor will that happen unless they violate the site’s guidelines (no spam and no hate speech).
Ok thanks Mr.Knapp
Russia only spends about the equilivant of 56 billion dollars a year on defense . The United States spend more than 10 times that much and intends to raise our spending about 56 billion next year . But somehow Russia sure does seem to have a lot of good fast new planes and real fancy missiles and military equipment
They should have shot the F-16 down.
So you’re saying you want war?
Oh goody … What next? …. Toss all U.S. and Russian citizens into a crowded and penned-in circle and using Flame Throwing equipment the Russian and U.S. Military can play chicken on either end of the pen??