NATO fighter jets were scrambled to intercept five Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea without flight plans or active transponders, the Latvian Air Force confirmed on Saturday.
The Russian planes were identified on two separate occasions, on Friday and Saturday, prompting a rapid response from NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission.
According to the Latvian Air Force, the Russian jets were detected flying in international airspace near the Baltic states, but had not activated their transponders, an electronic system that helps maintain safe air traffic control.
“Russian jets regularly enter the airspace above the Baltics with transponders switched off, likely to test the response of NATO states,” The Kyiv Independent reported, citing past instances of similar activities by Russian aircraft.
It’s funny that these flights represent significant, painful maintenance costs for Russia and are basically training hours for nato
I wonder what would happen if accidentally one of them got shot down.
Putin would be very angry and threaten to use nukes… so basically just another Tuesday.
China’s last warning, you say
There’s generally a procedure for that:
- Common frequency warning (ie. Guard frequency, 122.75)
- Close flyby to make the airplane change direction
- Shoot
If you skip the first two steps, you messed up and should be disciplined.
Ideally, the country that made the mistake should reach out to the other country to prevent escalation.
“Mistake”
You think 5 Russian jets mistakenly flew into US airspace? They do this shit all the time to many countries, there is zero mistake.
Shoot the fuckers down and see how often they keep playing this dumbarse game.
Sure you’re correct, but isn’t it, or shouldn’t it, also be:
Do not try to fly in the airspace you are not supposed to fly in?
I mean the Russians and before them the Soviets have done that deliberately since forever.
If the planes had entered sovereign airspace, sure. They synopsis says the Russians were flying in international airspace, which usually means it’s not under the sovereign control of any nation and the Latvians would have had no basis to fire on the Russians.
Personally, I’d love to see the Russians try to stunt their way into someone’s airspace and get dick slapped for it, but I doubt that would happen.
That’s a different scenario. That was over Syrian/Turkish airspace and Russia likely knew they don’t have a leg to stand on there considering the close vicinity of the border and conflicting reports over the bomber’s flight path. Not to mention that Turkey is a lot closer to Russia than the average NATO state.
I don’t think it could escalate to a full war, but shooting down aircraft in intl. airspace is much more serious than a bomber that has strayed into your national airspace.
Can anyone tell me what this extra 2 pairs of winglets and mini-fuel tanks are?
Edit: I see it now. Thanks to @[email protected] and @[email protected] for making me realize it’s 2 Typhoons 1 over the other.
That pic is extremely confusing. After staring at it for 10 seconds I realized there’s another Typhoon below the topmost one.
3 kids in a trenchcoat
