path of another aircraft and dropping
flares or chaff as a warning to back off.
Aerial intercepts involving NATO and
Russian aircraft are rather common
these days. In 2017, the skies above the
Baltic Sea saw 130 intercepts of Russian
aircraft by NATO airplanes compared to
110 in 2016, according to the alliance.
High-performance fighters from the US
and Europe regularly rotate in and out
of Baltic air bases as part of NATO’s air
policing mission.
In one case during June 2017, a Polish
Air Force F-16 intercepted a Russian
Tu-154 carrying defense minister Sergei
Shoigu as he flew to the heavily militarized
exclave of Kaliningrad. An escorting
Su-27 flew alongside the Polish fighter
and banked onto its side, revealing its
compliment of air-to-air missiles. In the
Pacific, Japan Air Self-Defense Force
intercepts of Russian aircraft in 2017 at
one point outpaced intercepts of Chinese
operations in the area. It’s unclear what
caused Chinese activities to drop, but an
increase in Russian activity is likely due
to the deployment of Tu-95MS ‘Bear’ and
Tu-22M3 ‘Backfire’ units to the area.Avoiding disaster
Fortunately, most aerial intercepts
are not hostile or confrontational in
nature, according to NATO. In many
cases, intercepts come about as a result
of innocent error and are conducted
safely. The pilots of military aircraft may
neglect to file a flight plan, or to switch
on the aircraft transponder, or elect not
to communicate with air traffic control.
The report on Baltic Air Policing in this
issue gives more details of such recent
incidents. ‘Very few are deliberate or
provocative,’ NATO chairman Petr Pavel, a
Czech army general, said during a March 7,
2018, briefing in Washington DC regarding
aerial intercepts over the Baltic Sea. ‘All
we have [seen] in the region is increased
military presence, more exercises, more
flights of [Russian] Long-Range Aviation,
more use of intelligence. But I wouldn’t call
it aggression.’
Nevertheless, mistakes can be
dangerous. Human error may have lead
to the near-collision between the F-
and Su-25s over Syria in December. Lt Col
Damien Pickart described the incident to
the New York Times as possibly arising from
‘an honest mistake’. The Russian defense
ministry alleged that it was the F-
that acted aggressively, not the Su-25s.
Meanwhile, Pickart rightly warned that
the USAF is very concerned about theRight: The USAF
released images
of this incident
involving an
RC-135U Combat
Sent flying over
the Baltic Sea and
being intercepted
by a Russian
Su-27 on June 19,- USAF/MSgt
Charles Larkin
http://www.combataircraft.net // May 2018 17
16-18 The Briefing C.indd 17 21/03/2018 10: