Russia’s Defense Ministry reported two incidents on Friday, in which a Su-27 and a Su-30 were sent to intercept a pair of US B-1B bombers flying over international waters in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Russia said the intercepting planes followed the US bombers over international waters, waiting until the bombers changed their directions and left the area. The US has not addressed this so far, though history suggests the Pentagon will fault Russia for it.
This comes just over a week after another Black Sea incident, in which NATO jets were sent to intercept a pair of Russian bombers that were close to Romanian airspace. Such interceptions are fairly regular, with NATO claiming nearly 300 violations by Russia in 2019.
Interestingly, for all the problems the US and NATO claim to have with such “violations,” there continue to be cases, mostly with US bombers and surveillance planes, violating Russian airspace or tracing the boundaries in a deliberately provocative manner. When this happens, the US complains it is “unprofessional” of Russia to intercept, even though this is what the US routinely does.
As always, with us it is my country right or wrong, my mother drunk or sober.
we need an old fashioned dog fight in the sky. our planes are better equipped than their dated relics so they probably wouldn’t dare to engage.
Not the latest Sukhoi fighters, or the slightly older ones that have been retro-fitted with the latest avionics, etc.
Not long ago there was competition between fighters and their pilots and the fellows from India won.
True The Russian planes were more maneuverable and could win in old fashioned dog fight . But the American planes could shoot from a far greater distance So there would never be a old fashioned dog fight .
None of these weapons mean much . High speed missiles will be the best weapon in a real war not planes aircraft carriers or sling shots . high speed missiles will come from every direction even from outer space . Nothing will be able to stop them..
F-35?… Are you kidding? They wouldn’t even need to send a jet up – just wait for it to come down.
your brain is a dated relics.
I hate this provocative behavior, and it’s true of both my US and of Russia. IMHO, painting the planes flying too close to borders with multiple strong radar is sending the message that in actual warfare the offenders would be quickly shot down. I’m convinced that modern wars are absurd between major parties because the weapons are too powerful, too accurate, and too plentiful. Tactical wars now fought with proxies. Territorial wars now fought with diaspora and economics.
proxy wars are a hoot. we assume no risk and we get rid of a ton of useless foreign people on both sides. win, win situation.
Res ipsa loquitur
Been going on for 60 years. Not long ago a couple of U.S. fighter aircraft intercepted a bomber, and old Bison prop job. The pilots in the Russian bomber contacted the pilots in the fighter aircraft and requested that they do barrel rolls, which the U.S. pilots did.
Making a big deal out of nothing.
BRING THEM HOME!
There really should have been more Top Gun movies.
On the other hand the magic of the original was never ruined by a series of bad sequels…