Russian planes again fly over U.S. Navy ships

maddog65 · Post by **maddog65** » 23 Mar 2009, 13:38

Found this from CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html
Russian military aircraft flew just 500 feet over two U.S. Navy ships this week as the ships participated in a joint military exercise with South Korea in the Sea of Japan, according to U.S. military officials.

Two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew only 500 feet above a U.S. aircraft carrier.

On Monday, two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft, known as "Mays," overflew the U.S. aircraft carrier Stennis while it was in international waters in the Sea of Japan.

The Russian aircraft flew about 500 feet over the ship, lower than other flights the Russians have made over U.S. ships in the past year.

The USS Stennis was about 80 miles east of Pohang, South Korea, participating in the joint military exercise when the flyover occurred.

On Tuesday, the USS Blue Ridge, a lead command and control ship, and the Stennis were overflown by two Russian "Bear" long-range bombers multiple times, according to U.S. military officials.

The Bears overflew the ships at about 2,000 feet, officials said.

U.S. military officials said that in both cases, U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighters met up with the Russian aircraft about 70 nautical miles from the U.S. ships and flew alongside them until they left the area.

On both days, U.S. aircraft tried contacting the Russian planes on international air frequency radio channels, but the Russian pilots did not respond, officials said.

The last time Russian planes flew over a U.S. Navy ship was February 2008, when two Bears flew 2,000 feet over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz south of Japan.

Russian long-range flights skirting U.S. or other nations' boundaries have also been common over the last year.

Although the Pentagon does not often talk about the overflights, there is nothing illegal about the actions, and they are generally seen by the United States as nothing more than muscle-flexing by the Russian military.

Jumpshot724 · Post by **Jumpshot724** » 23 Mar 2009, 14:56

Two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew only 500 feet above a U.S. aircraft carrier.

Ummm....I thought that US Navy fighters were always airborne (or on ready alert) to PREVENT any aircraft from visually aquiring the carrier(s)??

Or was this just back in the Tomcat days of the Cold War lol????

maddog65 · Post by **maddog65** » 23 Mar 2009, 15:16

Jumpshot724 wrote:
Two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew only 500 feet above a U.S. aircraft carrier.
Ummm....I thought that US Navy fighters were always airborne (or on ready alert) to PREVENT any aircraft from visually aquiring the carrier(s)??

Or was this just back in the Tomcat days of the Cold War lol????

U.S. military officials said that in both cases, U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighters met up with the Russian aircraft about 70 nautical miles from the U.S. ships and flew alongside them until they left the area.

Also being a tincan sailor standing watch in combat we would have been tracking them 200+ miles out. Can't light them up though as that would be a big no-no.

Jumpshot724 · Post by **Jumpshot724** » 23 Mar 2009, 15:25

Jumpshot724 wrote:
Quote:
Two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew only 500 feet above a U.S. aircraft carrier.

Ummm....I thought that US Navy fighters were always airborne (or on ready alert) to PREVENT any aircraft from visually aquiring the carrier(s)??

Or was this just back in the Tomcat days of the Cold War lol????

Quote:
U.S. military officials said that in both cases, U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighters met up with the Russian aircraft about 70 nautical miles from the U.S. ships and flew alongside them until they left the area.

Also being a tincan sailor standing watch in combat we would have been tracking them 200+ miles out. Can't light them up though as that would be a big no-no.

Yea I read that, but I thought they could "fly" in such a way that would "push" the Ruskies away from the carrier/battle group. All well, guess I'm just delirious lol

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 23 Mar 2009, 17:38

Wonder if they're still holding up pictures of Playboy centerfolds??

Jumpshot724 · Post by **Jumpshot724** » 23 Mar 2009, 18:03

Yea nvm I talked to my dad (former F-14 RIO in the 80's).

He said protocol was (and probably still is) to:

"Never let the Ruskies get a shot (photo) of the boat (carrier) without having a (US Navy) fighter in the photo".

So they would approach the carrier with the (in this case F-14) between the Russian plane and the carrier and slightly ahead of the Russian, then as they overtook the carrier the F-14 would slowly let the Russian plane overtake it, thus staying in it's way for a perfect camera shot

And I don't know about Playboys, but "Communication with single fingers" was quite common lol

sprocky · Post by **sprocky** » 23 Mar 2009, 21:17

Hm, why is it so important to avoid a photo shot from a US carrier these days? There are so many on the web and several TV channels made videos from the carrier surface available. This is rediculous, isn't it?

Jumpshot724 · Post by **Jumpshot724** » 23 Mar 2009, 21:49

Hm, why is it so important to avoid a photo shot from a US carrier these days? There are so many on the web and several TV channels made videos from the carrier surface available. This is rediculous, isn't it?

The thinking was twofold:

A) It would take away the Russian's ability to proclaim "Aha!! Look at how close we were able to get to a mighty US Carrier unoposed!!", IE anti-propoganda on our part
B) Made sure whoever saw those photos realized that hey, they're always watching what we do