Russian Fighter Jet Buzzes US Navy Ship What Should We Do?

[Reub]

"A Russian fighter aircraft made repeated low-altitude, close-range passes near a U.S. ship in the Black Sea over the weekend, the Pentagon said on Monday, condemning the action at a time of heightened U.S.-Russian tensions over Ukraine.

"This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with their national protocols and previous agreements on the professional interaction between our militaries," said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

Warren said a Russian Su-24 aircraft, or Fencer, made 12 passes at low altitude near the USS Donald Cook, a destroyer that has been in the Black Sea since April 10. It appeared to be unarmed, he told reporters.

The incident lasted 90 minutes and took place on Saturday evening while the U.S. ship was conducting a patrol in international waters in the western Black Sea, Warren said. The ship is now in a Romanian port.

The Russian plane, accompanied by another Fencer that did not fly close to the U.S. ship, did not respond to multiple attempts by the Donald Cook to communicate with its pilot, he said."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/russia ... id/565488/

Shouldn't we be better off just retreating from the area so that they know that we mean them no harm?

[Pointedstick]

What would you do?

[Lowe]

Highway to the...



Danger Zone.

[dragoncar]

Call their mom and have her ground them

[Stewardship]

"If government has a role to play in foreign affairs, it isn’t to win wars, to assure that the right people run foreign countries, to protect innocent foreigners from guilty aggressors, or to make the world safe for democracy  – or even a safer place at all.

"If government has a role, it can be only to keep us out of wars  – to make sure no one will ever attack us, to make certain you can live your life in peace, to assure you the freedom to ignore who is right and who is wrong in foreign conflicts."

–Harry Browne
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/browne.php?articleid=8630

[Benko]

We should tell the administraiton that it is being piloted by a homophobic replublican :-)

[Mountaineer]

We should tell the administraiton that it is being piloted by a homophobic replublican :-)

And that Bush is responsible. 

Edit:  On second thought, I'll bet that pilot just wanted equal flying rights.  What's the big deal?

[l82start]

Highway to the...



Danger Zone.

yes......  fly upside down above them and photograph the cockpit 

[Ad Orientem]

Nothing we didn't do to the Soviets on the rare occasions when they would send their ships into the Gulf of Mexico. Just letting them know they were a long way from home and playing in our backyard. They are doing the same thing.

[RuralEngineer]

If it happens agains we could always send up a jet of our own and get a missile lock, Top Gun style. I'm no expert, but I'd put that at the same level of escalation as a soldier pointing a gun at another without firing. Unfortunate, but not an act of war.

A wiser course of action would be to ignore the Russian assholes.  Perhaps move another missile defense ship into the area.

[Bob]

When I was a firing platoon leader on a missile site in South Korea in the mid-1970s, we would receive an update when a Soviet spy satellite would be overhead.  On one occasion, I assembled the platoon and at the time the Soviet spy satellite was overhead, we gave them the "middle finger salute".  What a great sight that would have been --  a Russian fighter / bomber overflying our ship in the Black Sea and all the sailors on board flipping them off.

[dualstow]

Remember the spy plane incident with China in the early 2000s (or maybe 2000?) Seems like yesterday.

[Jay-UMN]

Highway to the...



Danger Zone.

haha, classic... I thought the same thing.

[Mountaineer]

It was not exactly a close "overflight" (nothing nearly as exciting as Maverick buzzing the tower in Top Gun).  Close enough for weapons release (but that could have been almost a hundred miles) but not close enough to see a coordinated "flip-off" without good cameras.  I am definitely not a military expert, but it seems the press, and or their WH bosses, may be making more of this "overflight" than the incident deserves.

Pentagon officials said the Russian fighter jet flew within 1,000 yards of the ship at an altitude of about 500 feet.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... yer-black/

... Mountaineer