U.S. official: Spy plane flew over Sweden to evade Russian military tracking

CNN ^ | August 2, 2014 | Barbara Starr

[McGruff]

A U.S. Air Force spy plane evaded an encounter with the Russian military in recent days by flying into nearby Swedish airspace without that country's permission, a U.S. military official told CNN.

The RC-135 Rivet Joint plane was flying in international airspace, conducting an electronic eavesdropping mission on the Russian military, when the Russians took the unusual action of beginning to track it with one of its land-based radar.

The Russians then sent at least one fighter jet into the sky to intercept the American aircraft, the U.S. official said Saturday.

[Rashputin]

For the sake of clarity, I did not miss your point, just in case you take my comment the wrong way.

[Rashputin]

Makes sense and maybe that's the case but I'd have thought given the current climate they would have differentiated.

Is it possible they were surprised that Russian long range radar would single out the aircraft rather than seeing it as normal civilian flights over Sweden and ignoring it?

[Rashputin]

From the article:
"As a result of this incident, the United States is discussing the matter with Sweden and letting them know there may be further occurrences where American jets may have to divert so quickly they may not be able to wait for permission."

Apparently Sweden's neutrality isn't high on the US priority list these days and the US figures Sweden feels the same if they expect to be allowed to ignore that neutrality at the pilot's discretion.

[1rudeboy]

You had a point? Truly surprising.

[Azeem]

The memories of many hours in the RJ. Its not a bad plane, just always smelled funny and older than dirt. One plane, nicknamed Damien, had a short and the microwave would set off the call button.

[struwwelpeter]

ts not a bad plane, just always smelled funny and older than dirt.

I was kinda partial to that Sent ;-)

[Straight Vermonter]

I'm trying to figure out why the Public needs to know this kind of information.

How would you get the Swedes to keep it a secret?

[Azeem]

When I read the headline, I thought it was the Combat Sent that got lit up, not the Rivet Joint. I mentioned in another thread, this isn’t the first time or even the closest the RJ has been threatened or intercepted. If the Russians really wanted to take it down, they could. The 707 is not going to outrun or outmaneuver a AAM or SAM.