Black Sea Aerial Provocation: Russian Fighter Conducts ‘Unsafe’ Intercept of U.S. Recon Plane

Via Reeko:

On Monday this week a US recon aircraft was intercepted over international waters in the Black Sea well over thirty miles from the nearest coastline. The US RC-135, designated a “Rivet Joint” aircraft, was intercepted aggressively by a Russian Sukhoi 27, NATO codename “Flanker”, reportedly came within 20 feet of the much larger reconnaissance aircraft while at altitude. The Flanker then performed what is being described as an “aggressive banking turn” which in turn “disturbed the controllability” of the RC-135. The US aircraft eventually recovered to stable flight enough to return to base relatively safely.

Several things are very important to note here. For one, this incident happened just a few days before the US and Russia announced a joint flight safety memorandum on specifically, this type of incidents in the AO (area of operations) around Turkey, Syria, Iraq and littorals. Another important note is that Russia has done this type of provocative and dangerous intercepts of our intelligence platforms many, many times in the past. Most recently, they did almost the exact type of intercept in the Baltic just this past summer.

Please note that these aggressive intercepts are not just merely a close “look and see” fly-by of the supersonic fighter jets. In the crews’ terms, these are routinely called “bump and runs” and are usually played out by the fighter jet sliding up and under/off one of the wings of the much larger (Boeing 707 type) recon aircraft which usually carries over 30 souls on board. The fighter jet then “slips it” and rocks wings up and down and slides either up over or down under the larger jet while pushing his throttles up to come out ahead of the recon aircraft.

Remember, all of this deliberate airplay is not play at all – it is life-threatening and on purpose. Their normal cruising altitude is anywhere from 20 to 35 thousand feet and their speeds can be around 400 to 500 mph. The turbulence from a fighter’s wing-waggle/wing-slip and then pulling ahead is enough to throw the larger aircraft into a very turbulent wake rocking and shaking everything and everybody inside to pieces. If that isn’t enough, there have been times when the coup-de-grace would then be delivered by the intercepting jet pilot while he is out in front of the larger plane: he would hit his afterburners. Ka-boom.

For those who don’t know, an afterburner is literally an extension of a jet engine that shoots gallons of gas into the almost 1000 degree exhaust coming from the engine itself, igniting into a plasma blast of well over 2000 degrees and exploding out the tail pipe of the jet. Most afterburning jets can get up to 80 percent more power from the afterburner kicking in alone, and a SU-27 Flanker has not one, but two very bad-ass afterburning engines. In the rarified air of the cruising altitude of an RC-135, and within sometimes less than 100 feet directly in front of the nose of the aircraft, any afterburners being lighted off is quite literally the equivalent of bombs going off directly in your flight path. The compression/air burst effects are physically the same as bombs. An afterburner lighting could completely disintegrate an aircraft flying in close tail. The Russian pilots know that – and so do the terrified recon crews flying unarmed – and unafraid.

One final note. I personally have flown on almost every RC-135 in the USAF, and not only watched a fighter jet off our wing do this maneuver, but I lived to fly and fight another day. Yet, I can still see the faces and name the names of those who didn’t come back from long ago… These airmen this week will have a story or two to tell that is for sure. Hell, if I get to meet them I will buy them all a drink. They deserve it. God bless our airmen, and may His angels protect them all. Amen.

your wingman,
reeko forsazh

SEE ALSO:

Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon: Russian Fighter Conducts Dangerous Intercept of U.S. Recon Jet