NATO F-16 trying to approach Russian defense minister’s plane over Baltic. Unprecedented!

Honestly, from the video it doesn't look like the Viper was even armed. The Flanker looks like he was just trying to push him out a little farther away, not show him he was armed and scare him off. As soon as the Viper started moving farther out, the Flanker tucked right back into formation. If they were worried he was going to do something they would have stayed closer to him, not tucked back against the transport.

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I always apply critical thinking to news reports, and I track down original sources whenever possible. In liberal democracies, the press has always been viewed as a counter balance to the government. This is why the media are free to criticize public officials, and they often break stories that are embarrassing for the government.

In countries like Russia and Iran, the media is controlled by the state. It is safe to assume that any story they publish will, in some way, advance the state's agenda. It is therefore not unreasonable to ask what agenda this story is supporting. At the most superficial level, it seems to be pushing the theme of "NATO aggression," although both sides have clearly been playing chicken for quite some time.

My speculation is that the Kremlin may be trying to show some tension between Russia and the current administration in order to influence public opinion in the United States. But Russia never uses propaganda to advance its policy goals, right?

And in the American Empire, the corporations that own the politicians and political parties also own the media.

And war is big money for them. The wars themselves, the reporting of the wars.

But these multinational corporations always get the benefit of the doubt from you (to put it lightly), and anything that might run contrary to the MSM.mil's war propaganda gets lit up a, well, in this thread you're alleging "Russian trolls" are in the forum stirring the pot.

My Fake news series PROVED the MSM is the .mil's propaganda arm, the Military Industrial Complex's propaganda arm, the governments propganda arm, the Two party System's propaganda arm. And you've seen it. And still you play coy at every turn.

Just because the outlets are loaded with decisive partisansnip badgersome parrots doesn't prove that the institutions themselves are somehow 'honest', 'trustworthy', 'whatever'.

The FACTS are... That the CIA started the war in Syria. Which gave Russia its excuse to annex Crimea (which its not like they didn't have an argument in the situation, unlike the CIA's handiwork across the ME the past 60 years). And the MSM worked tirelessly to spin it all in Syria et al as Russia's fault (when it was the CIA's). And they did it for Hillary Obama etc.

And now you've been a total minion to their efforts ever since, as far as I've observed, and for what? Oh, since they played partisan games with Hillary Trump etc, that somehow proves they're bastions of freedom and yummy gushy feel good stuff?

BS.

The MSM.mil complex are promoters and coverup hatchetmen of mass murder war criminality across the globe, and they have been for longer than either of us have been alive.

Which Russia for all it's faults are not for all intensive purposes, when compared to American imperialism foreign policy since the long before the USSR fell, and then "Russia" was reborn. There's no comparison. Meaning they have less than 1/10th the motivations to construct a mass deception. Afterall, we're the true imperialist hegemons, while the entire population has been socially engineered for multiple overlapping generations to be completely clueless to this reality. Meaning "our" MSM.mil has 100 if not 1000 times the cause to put on a big charade about all this kind of stuff, than Russia whose merely trying to keep US in check ON THEIR CONTINENT if anything.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I think he's got an AMRAAM on the wingtip pylon.

And my version of "buzzing" an airplane is totally different than this video. This video is Grandma stopping by for tea.

A good buzzing typically involves seeing, hearing and feeling the other aircraft. At least, if you do it right.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Honestly, from the video it doesn't look like the Viper was even armed. The Flanker looks like he was just trying to push him out a little farther away, not show him he was armed and scare him off. As soon as the Viper started moving farther out, the Flanker tucked right back into formation. If they were worried he was going to do something they would have stayed closer to him, not tucked back against the transport.

Why would he go up to intercept an unknown plane with no armament?? That doesn't make sense to me.

originally posted by: Flatcoat
a reply to: DJW001

Yep.. They're russians so they must be lying......right?

...and it must be linked to Trump... somehow...

a reply to: GuidedKill

The Viper has wingtip rails, so he might have missiles on them. I'm on my phone so the normally not great resolution is not great and really tiny. Sometimes though, it's a matter of "you're airborne and close, go see what it is".

And IF they had No fighter escort?
maybe a airplane crashes mysteriously.

ONE fighter jet changeling Two fighters?
it would have been 3 radar blips.
What the hell?

a reply to: buddha

And if they had no fighter escort, the same thing would have happened. The only reason the Russian fighter reacted is because the one checking them out drifted too close while looking them over. As close as the Russian fighters were flying, they would have shown up as one radar return, unless they drifted out from the transport.

Yes, ATS deals with conspiracy, but sometimes things are exactly what they seem. This was a routine identification of an aircraft that was flying in their area.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: GuidedKill

The Viper has wingtip rails, so he might have missiles on them. I'm on my phone so the normally not great resolution is not great and really tiny. Sometimes though, it's a matter of "you're airborne and close, go see what it is".

When you get to a bigger monitor, see if you think that that his pod maybe a Harvester.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: PublicOpinion

The video out of the B-1 a couple weeks ago was downright boring. I'd love to see the Constant Phoenix or Combat Sent video too.

There's a picture I got to see in a ready room on a carrier once that I'd love to see out in the wild, but it won't happen. Nice routine intercept of a Tu-95 near a carrier group, but the F-14 flying off their wing had the RIO in a gorilla mask.

Story made my day, thanks )

a reply to: Violater1

I can see that much. He's got three external fuel tanks.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

There's no comparison. Meaning they have less than 1/10th the motivations to construct a mass deception.

So you are unwilling to consider the possibility that Russia spreads just as much, if not more, deceptive propaganda than the United States? That was not even the question. I am afraid there is no hope for you. You continually express your disdain for capitalism, the media, and the ability of human beings to think for themselves.

No matter how many times I tell you that, yes, the media, and particularly television gets things wrong, and that yes, corporations will use the media to mislead the public, and yes, even the most object journalists and editors will display biases from time to time, no, respectable news organizations both here and abroad do not just make things up. Even reliable Russian sources, which is why I am reasonably certain the video footage on RT is real.

Russian disinformation is clever. The intelligence agencies plant false stories on blogs and unreliable non-state news sites that then proliferate across the web as rumors. Once the lie has spread through grass root channels, they can have Sputnik or RT pick it up with the headline: "Is such-and-such rumor true?" That way they can present the story "objectively" without risking their credibility by stating the rumor as fact.

When a Russian news outlet reports a story, it usually addresses a political objective on the part of the government. When a "western" news outlet publishes a story, it is to make money. You clearly prefer the former system. Personally, I prefer the mixture we have here... it presents choices.

originally posted by: UKTruth

originally posted by: Flatcoat
a reply to: DJW001

Yep.. They're russians so they must be lying......right?

...and it must be linked to Trump... somehow...

If I don't blame everything on Trump the Deep Government will dock me.

Besides the fact that the F-16s were immediately scared away by the air superiority of Sukhoi fighters against which NATO aircraft don't stand a chance, it is very weird to intercept a minister's plane by NATO. I wonder whether the EU is already using modified aircraft insignia to look like the USAF aircraft insignia, in a attempt to blame any accident on the US ....

a reply to: Flanker86

You'll just reach for anything to blame on the EU without providing a bit of proof, won't you.

a reply to: PublicOpinion

Not as good as video, but pictures of the Su-27 flying by the RC-135 are out. Interestingly the left cowling doesn't look like any of the RC-135s. They must have taken the cowling off an engine meant for Cobra Ball and hung it on Combat Sent.

taskandpurpose.com...

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: 2012newstart

Did NATO commanders understand that to treaten to kill such person in past time was considered Casus Belli, cause of war?

Did the NATO pilot have x-ray vision so that he could see who was on the plane? Or did he just see Russian planes in Polish territory?

It is not the pilot who decides his or her mission. If the F-16 pilot was sent up it was because of someone elses orders, not the pilot.

NATO's future is like in one of those post-modern decadent and dystopian video games.
Policing and fighting civil conflict within itself. NATO is already quite late for a re-tooling for it's future 21st century purpose. All those fighter jets, and MBTs are pointless in the coming persistent internal conflict, independently of how high bitcoin is pushed ...

NATO, armies will have to be withdrawn from Afghanistan, Iraq etc. and be resized significantly and turned into a tool to resolve internal issues under a completely different Command and Control structure and operational methods.