Posted on 03/05/2008 5:30:17 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Russian bomber aircraft approached a U.S. aircraft carrier off the Korean coast on Wednesday and was intercepted by American fighter jets -- the second such incident in less than a month, U.S. defense officials said.
According to the U.S. officials, a Russian bomber came within three to five nautical miles and flew 2,000 feet (610 meters) above the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships.
Two U.S. F/A-18 fighters were launched to intercept the Russian aircraft and escort it out of the area, according to one defense official.
Russian bombers over the past year have increased their flights near U.S. territory and U.S. naval assets, demonstrating their long-range strike capability.
In February, two Russian bombers approached the Nimitz near Japan and one flew over the carrier, escorted by a U.S. fighter jet. That was the first Russian overflight of a U.S. carrier since 2004.
Those operations come as Russian officials say they will revive some of the military power and reach allowed to collapse with the Soviet Union.
U.S. defense officials on Wednesday said they did not consider the Russian bomber flight a threat or concern.
But could they please ask for permission next time? /sarc
WTF? Bush better teach them how unacceptable this is before McCain or Hillary gets in.
We were doing this stuff 50 years ago over the Arctic. No big deal. Its just gamesmanship. Russia trying to reassert itself while we are bogged down in the ME and with elections.
Bogged down????
It’s a quagmire, man. Totally Bush’s fault!
Lock weapons on them!
Give ‘em a bit of a scare!
You may not be aware of this, but these types of flybys have been going on for decades, and really are standard operating procedure, like it or not. Additionally, if you have a ship in International Waters you do not have exclusive rights to the airspace above or around your ships.
“U.S. defense officials on Wednesday said they did not consider the Russian bomber flight a threat or concern.”
..... as they slap up a map to point and advise “we could have shot them down here, and here, and here, and here, and here.......”
Ping.
F-8 Crusader was about the best looking jet fighter the US Navy ever had—or any that the Air Force had. Great looking airplane. Damn thing just LOOKED like a fighter, unlike the F-4, which looked like a Goose.
To me, an A-7 never looked like it would fly sitting on the ground. Much less carry the huge bomb load it did!
I have to dissagree.My favorite navy Jet would have been the A-4 Skyhawk.A little bird that packed a lot of power.
My Air Force Jet would be the F-16.That jet can dog fight like no other aircraft.
Im Partial since I served In the Air Force but I loved that SkyHawk
I know we do this to them too, but 2000 feet from the Nimitz? I didn’t know we left them get that close. Or are they saying 3-4 miles away at 2000 feet?
Are you nuts? This is perfectly acceptable. It is a ship in international waters. If there is a problem then it will be a problem when we overfly THEIR ships in international waters. And believe you me, we fly over their ships far more than they fly over ours.
What about the P-51, or P-38?
I think the altitude was 2000ft.
ping!
I think one of our anti-aircraft missiles ought to do a final flyby on one of those bombers. That’ll get their attention...
NO... NO... NO!!!!
F-14 TOMCAT... best damn navy fighter ever to see service!
TOMCAT, TOMCAT, TOMCAT!!! WE BE TOMCATTIN’, BABY! YEAH!
Lockheed P-38 Lightning and North American P-51D Mustang... Ooooooh... better than sex... almost.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v489/gorush/?action=view¤t=CA_SU-30.flv
Click on pic for past Navair pings.
Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.
Our so-called friends.
Bush looks like an ever bigger fool as the days pass.
Russians are hopeless.
Maverick in TOP GUN needs to give them the finger at a distance of 3 meters.
If we put the mullahs in Iran down, Russia will back off.
I remember seeing one escorted by F-4’s flying over the ship I was on at the time (USS Chicago, CG-11), about 1976.
Sorry friend, but I beg to differ. The F-102 was not exactly shabby and quite beautiful, if deadly looking.
Of course having served in the USAF for 8 years, I'm kind of prejudice.
BTW, this is the plane that W flew in the guards.
When playing cat and mouse, it’s standard for the cat to swat the mouse from time to time. ;^)
this is perfectly legal (international airspace).. Ask anyone who was in the navy during the cold war - hoopefully someof them will join this thread to offer some sanity. These threads get very reactionary, but in fact this was a normal part of daily life in for both Navies for decades.
The A7 is without a doubt the frigg’n LOUDEST fighter jet ever invented.
my sub was directly in the flight path of those damn things in Norfolk NAS.
hate those planes.
Those interceptors were a mere courtesy. The Pickets were trained on the Bears just for practice.
nevermind,...Im thinking A6
We allow them, and are required to allow them, as close as they want, as long as we are in territorial waters.
~~~Navy.mil. ,,,;0)
Ships and Submarines
Deployable Battle Force Ships: 280
Ships Underway (away from homeport): 138 ships (49% of total)
On deployment: 97 ships (35% of total)
Attack submarines underway (away from homeport): 29 submarines (53%)
On deployment: 18 submarines (33%)
Ships Underway
Carriers:
USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Pacific Ocean
USS Nimitz (CVN 68) - Sea of Japan
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) - Atlantic Ocean
USS George Washington (CVN 73) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) - 5th Fleet
Amphibious Warfare Ships:
USS Nassau (LHA 4) - 6th Fleet
USS Essex (LHD 2) - Philippine Sea
USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) - Pacific Ocean
USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Atlantic Ocean
Tarawa Expeditionary Strike Group:
USS Tarawa (LHA 1) - 5th Fleet
Aircraft (operational): 3700+
Used to work with a guy who worked on the TALOS aboard the Chicago around the same time.
If you can defend it, you do.
I meant to say international.
I was part of the Helicopter detachment (not ships company).
The P38 was my Dad’s favorite aircraft of all times for one very practical reason: “When you saw one of those twin boomed beauties, you knew every other airplane in the air was American”.
Rummlin Grummans!
The next thing Putin will do is to send 2 TU-95 Bears flying down the East coast and have them land in Cuba, as they did during the Cold War, then continue their flight to visit their new friend in Venezuela, Loco Chavez.
If you want to have a view of how life was in a Soviet Bear airbase, read “BEAR, Flight to Liberty,” a novel about how the crew of one of those giants planned and effected their escape from the USSR to Canada in August 1976. You can get it from amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com
We found them all the time but couldn’t catch them in our P-3B (the Bear is 100 knots faster and can fly 10,000 feet higher. On the downside, the Bear makes most crew go deaf, so there!).
As long as the Bear has been in use and all the noise (and vibration) I’ve always heard about, a suspicious mind would wonder about metal fatigue in those birds. Not that the Russians would tell anybody if it did begin to crop up.
The book is a work of fiction. No Bear and its crew actually defected to Canada.
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