Russian Fighter Jet Nearly Collides with U.S Spy Jet Over Europe

If this has been posted I missed it and apologies.

Well its getting warmer every day.

One of our RC-135U's got a little extra attention Tuesday. Prompting a diplomatic protest.

“On the morning of April 7th, a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez.

We have been keeping an eye on the Ukraine situation with more diligence since the talk of using Nukes came up.

]The monitoring comes amid new worries that Russia is deploying new short-range Iskander nuclear capable missiles in Kaliningrad and Russian-occupied Crimea in the Ukraine.

The U.S. Plane is an extremely versatile and popular version of the Boeing 707. This variant is the Combat Sent.

The RC-135 is a militarized and upgraded Boeing 707 jetliner that can be configured for several types of intelligence gathering, including photo, nuclear monitoring, and electronic spying.

The RC-135U variant involved in Tuesday’s near collision is code-named Combat Sent and conducts technical intelligence gathering on enemy electronic signals and radar emitters.

Link

A little more on Combat Sent from Wiki

]The RC-135U Combat Sent is designed to collect technical intelligence on adversary radar emitter systems. Combat Sent data is collected to develop new or upgraded radar warning receivers, jammers, decoys, anti-radiation missiles, and training simulators.[3]

Distinctly identified by the antennae arrays on the nose, tail, and wing tips, three RC-135C aircraft were converted to RC-135U (63-9792, 64-14847, & 64-14849) in the early 1970s and 63-9792 was converted to Rivet Joint, late 1978, and all aircraft are based at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. Minimum crew requirements are 2 pilots, 2 navigators, 3 systems engineers, 10 electronic warfare officers, and 6 area specialists.

Link

At least there wasn't a collision like our Hainan Island incident with China where our EP-3 was damaged and ultimately dismantled before being sent home on an AN-124.

Here's a good pic of an SU-27 Flanker.

Every politician from every country that wants to play these games of grab ass should have to sit bitch in a plane that teases another country's border in rotation.

Any "accident" right now between Russia and the US (or any other ally in Europe) risks considerable escalation extremely quickly.

A report by the European Leadership Network, “Dangerous Brinksmanship: Close Military Encounters Between Russia and the West in 2014,” states that last year NATO aircraft conducted more than 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft, three times the number of intercepts in 2013. A total of 11 encounters were described as being of a serious and “more aggressive or unusually provocative nature, bringing a higher level risk of escalation.”

Any accident between friendly nations would be dealt with diplomatically. With Russia it wouldn't be as easy as that, it could even be considered an act of aggression. Russia has been running deliberately provocative maneuvers into the sovereign airspace of other countries, and poking around testing responses in a pretty sinister way. If any Nato or US plane was to be brought down by Russia it could rightly be described as an act of war.

I wonder where they were flying over exactly. Something tells me they wanted to nip the nose and force it to land like China did.

a reply to: howmuch4another

There were a couple of similar incidents with RC-135s last year. One where the Russian fighter passed close overhead, and one where the RC ducked into Swiss airspace to get away from approaching fighters.

Twenty feet is way too close, especially with a large aircraft like an RC.

Do they let the Russian pilots drink on the job or something? What makes them think it's OK to behave like this? It's all fun and games until there's a mid air collision...

a reply to: Rocker2013

I agree it would be taken very seriously to the point of an act of war but that;s exactly why we should worry about it. Mistakes happen when flying in close quarters and an incident like this is exactly the type of thing that led to Hainan.
We brought down our own XB-70 after a photo shoot by flying too close.

a reply to: Rocker2013

It wouldn't be the first time. The West lost quite a few aircraft to the Soviet Union. A number came home with holes in them too.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You've got to think that the Russian pilots are trained enough to understand that 20 ft at those speeds is...ludicrous? I've heard about prescription drugs being used to keep pilots awake...maybe they're air force is doling out medication and it's causing them to be reckless?

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Do they let the Russian pilots drink on the job or something? What makes them think it's OK to behave like this? It's all fun and games until there's a mid air collision...

Of course, only Russian pilots are alcoholics and raving lunatics.

www.bloomberg.com...

www.dailymail.co.uk...

www.foxnews.com...

Haters gona hate.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

It works though. The next RC flight after a Russian fighter flew within 50 feet of the aircraft during the intercept ran through Swiss airspace without permission as soon as they detected the launch of a fighter to intercept them.

If they could bag an RC, and force it to land, it would make the EP-3 Intel coup look like nothing.

a reply to: Rocker2013

Sounds like you miss President Bush.
He did not start a cold war...like Ayatollah Obama/TPTB.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Do they let the Russian pilots drink on the job or something?

Well they do have the best Vodka supposedly. I'm a brown liquor kind of guy.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: MystikMushroom

If they could bag an RC, and force it to land, it would make the EP-3 Intel coup look like nothing.

Ain't that the truth.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
a reply to: Zaphod58

You've got to think that the Russian pilots are trained enough to understand that 20 ft at those speeds is...ludicrous? I've heard about prescription drugs being used to keep pilots awake...maybe they're air force is doling out medication and it's causing them to be reckless?

Nothing new there no matter the Flag they are flying.
abcnews.go.com...

reliminary court-martial proceedings begin next month against two U.S. fighter pilots involved in a tragic incident over Afghanistan that cost four lives and exposed a little-known fact about the way America fights its long-distance air wars. Majs. Harry Schmidt and William Umbach are facing up to 64 years in prison for a friendly fire incident over Kandahar Afghanistan on April 17 that killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded eight others. When the two were sent on their mission over Afghanistan and Iraq the Air Force gave them $30 million F-16 fighter jets laser-guided precision munitions state-of-the-art technology and something that came as a complete surprise — . a prescription drug are known on the street as uppers or speed. Yet a 20/20 investigation has found thethe speed pills are now standard issue to U.S. Air Force combat pilots to help them stay awake on long combat sorties.

Regards, Iwinder

If in fact it was twenty feet that in itself shows us how serious things are right now. It seems we have gone past just buzzing the tower to way over the top.

a reply to: howmuch4another

A defense official said the Russian fighter jet flew within 20 feet of the unarmed reconnaissance jet in what the official called a “reckless” encounter that endangered the lives of the RC-135 crew.

20 Feet is not what I would call dangerous unless the crew of the 135 did not see them (which is obviously not the case). You do an intercept and pull up along side the left side of the aircraft's cockpit where the aircraft commander sits. You then make derogatory international had jesters or signal up yours... Sometimes it is a stare down that ends with a salute before you break away. 20 feet probably did get the 135's crew a little excited...have you ever seen 135's fly formation... If they are in the general same area of the sky or within 2 wing spans they call it a good tight formation...

Yes the intercepts are increasing and could become more of a serious international incident.. this is just boys with their toys showing off. Brinkmanship.

a reply to: bullcat

...Of Course

originally posted by: 727Sky

You do an intercept and pull up along side the left side of the aircraft's cockpit where the aircraft commander sits. You then make derogatory international had jesters or signal up yours....

I the movies they do it "inverted in a negative 2g dive"

a reply to: 727Sky

Twenty feet is a lot closer than necessary. There is no reason to be that close.