Not really newsworthy.
They do this regularly. It’s normal.
It’s used to test reaction time. They fly towards the border, then see how fast the jets scramble.
Eg.
https://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/23/world/europe/russian-bombers-intercepted/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/17/raf-fighters-intercept-two-russian-bombers-uk-airspace
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/russian-bombers-f-22-intercept-alaska/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/11/politics/us-stealth-fighters-intercept-russian-bombers/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/us-aircraft-intercept-russian-bombers/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/31/politics/russian-jet-nato-b-52/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/30/politics/nato-russia-jets/index.html
Here’s a few where the Russian scrambled jets when the US flew to near Russia:
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3736802/russia-warplanes-intercept-us-b-52-nuclear/
Caveat: the Russians try to portray any flight even slightly near the Russian border as very agressive and obviously use any and all incidents to play a round of whataboutism. They’ve also got this whole narrative going about NATO being about to invade Russia. Meanwhile western media will portray these intercepts as very agressive and unprofessional, something the Russians will deny, but given what happened with that drone a while back that’s likely true.
Occasionally someone will violate someone else’s airspace, especially if countries degree where it starts/ends. Also not uncommon.
Same thing with China.
Not really a big deal, except that time Turkey shut down a Russian jet, or occasional spy ballon/drone shootdowns. Certainly unlikely to start a war.
Yeah, they also buzz Alaska and Seattle on a regular basis as well.
That a yuge Bomber !!!
Tu-95 Bear
What’s to prevent them from allowing the planes into airspace, warning them, then forcing them to land if they don’t GTFO after the 1st warning?
Because, unlike the safe fragile bubble society has built around you, military forces only respond to agression and violence. Kind words and warnings belong to the politicians, self defense is non-negotiable; rules of engagement are mandated by politics.
There’s this thing called a missile. 50 kg of high explosive at the front end of the missile will blow the other aircraft out of the sky.
That’s what keeps these planes from nuking your cities.
I still think this is how WW3 will start. Russia is provoking to the point that someone will take the bait.
Russia probes NATO air defense all the time. They even had a jet shot down by Turkey in 2015 and nothing of consequence happened
And we probe their defense too. This is standard behavior. Reporting is as if it’s unusual is just stirring up anti-russian sentiment.
This could be a matter of there being a language barrier, but I haven’t seen stories of Russia complaining about probes from NATO.
Google search of Russia complaints of NATO actions near border.
I’m not going to link them individually. There are instances of Russia complaining about NATO action near its border.
I meant with aircraft. Not exactly the same thing comparing a ground action inside a state’s territory with a jet that can travel faster than the speed of sound, imo. I might add that Russian probing often leads to them entering into NATO airspace in a way that NATO drills have not, to my knowledge.
and nothing of consequence happened
I think Russia stopped probing Turkey, no?
Nothing of consequence happened THEN. Tensions are a lot higher now than they have been in the past several years. Who knows what will happen?
Turkey did. There was no retaliation.
Nah, this is a non-story and happens all the time. It’s just here to rile people up who don’t pay close attention to these sorts of articles.
Don’t forget they flew those armed helicopters over Polish villages recently.
