{"id":1296,"date":"2017-06-24T21:33:23","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T18:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2017-06-30T21:56:53","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T18:56:53","slug":"whats-behind-unprecedented-number-of-russia-nato-aerial-intercepts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1296","title":{"rendered":"What’s Behind ‘Unprecedented’ Number of Russia-NATO Aerial Intercepts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Russian<\/a>

Russian Air Force Su-27 intercepted reconnaissance aircraft (Photo by \u00a9 U.S. European Command)<\/p><\/div>\n

The number of reconnaissance aircraft intercepted along Russia\u2019s border from June 12-18 was unprecedented, even by Cold War standards, according to Russian military expert Konstantin Sivkov.<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n
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NATO Steps Up Reconnaissance Near Russian Borders – General Staff\u00a0<\/a>(\u00a9 AFP 2017\/ TARIK TINAZAY)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Earlier, the official newspaper of\u00a0the Russian Defense Ministry “Krasnaya Zvezda” reported that in\u00a0the last week (June 12-18) Russian jet fighters conducted 14 intercepts<\/a> of\u00a0foreign reconnaissance planes near\u00a0the Russian border.A total of\u00a023 reconnaissance flights were performed near\u00a0the Russian border. In particular, there were 10 flights by\u00a0US aircraft, including the RC-135 and the Global Hawk strategic drone. Four flights were conducted by\u00a0the Norwegian air force on\u00a0an R-3C Orion reconnaissance plane. The Swedish aviation conducted three flights. Britain and France performed two reconnaissance flights each.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0the newspaper, the intercepts were conducted by\u00a0MiG-31<\/a> and Su-27 jets of\u00a0the Russian air defense alert forces.<\/p>\n

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\"NATO's<\/div>\n
Closest of Calls: WATCH Su-27 Chase NATO F-16 Away From Russian Defense Minister’s Plane<\/a>\u00a0 (\u00a9 Photo: Youtube \/ ????????? ??????)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For example, on\u00a0June 19, an RC-135 plane was identified and intercepted by\u00a0a Su-27 jet<\/a> over\u00a0the Baltic Sea while approaching the Russian border.The Russian Defense Ministry said that the RC-135 crew had carried out\u00a0a provocative turn toward\u00a0Russia’s Su-27, adding that the Russian pilot reacted to\u00a0the maneuver and kept escorting the reconnaissance plane until\u00a0it changed its direction of\u00a0flight away from\u00a0the Russian border. Ten minutes after\u00a0the incident, another RC-135 entered the zone, which was also intercepted by\u00a0the Russian Su-27, the Russian Defense Ministry said.<\/p>\n

“The number is unprecedented, especially taking into\u00a0account the fact that there is no Cold War today. At that time, we saw an average of\u00a0seven-eight interecepts a week. But today the number is much higher,” Konstantin Sivkov, a Russian military analyst and president of\u00a0the Academy for\u00a0Geopolitical Problems, told Sputnik.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"US<\/div>\n
Why NATO’s Increased Reconnaissance Activity ‘Comes as No Surprise to Russia’<\/a>\u00a0 (\u00a9 AFP 2017\/ Greg WOOD);<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The expert expressed concern over\u00a0the situation because the majority of\u00a0the intercepts occurred in\u00a0the European part of\u00a0Russia.Sivkov pointed out\u00a0that the activity may be related to\u00a0the balance of\u00a0power in\u00a0the Syrian conflict, which is currently not in\u00a0favor of\u00a0the US and its allies.<\/p>\n

“Now, the Syrian Army and its allies may reach the Syria-Jordan border and cut opposition forces from\u00a0American bases in\u00a0Jordan, which would be unacceptable for\u00a0the US. This is why the Pentagon launched strikes on\u00a0Syrian forces. They are testing the waters,”<\/em> Sivkov said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He suggested that it cannot be ruled out\u00a0that Moscow will support Syrian forces, which means the risk of\u00a0a military confrontation between\u00a0the US and Russia in\u00a0Syria.<\/p>\n

“This is the reason while the US and its NATO allies have increased the number of\u00a0reconnaissance flights near\u00a0Russia\u2019s border,”<\/em> he concluded.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In turn, former commander of\u00a0the Russian Air Force Pyotr Deinekin said that the increase in\u00a0NATO\u2019s reconnaissance activity can be explained by\u00a0a recent exercise of\u00a0the alliance in\u00a0the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n

“As for\u00a0the Baltic Sea, the reason is that NATO held drills there and US aircraft, including RC-135 and B-52 strategic bombers, were flying over\u00a0neutral waters there. In addition, there was an incident when NATO jets flew by\u00a0a Russian plane carrying the Russian defense minister,”<\/em> he told Sputnik.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Su-27<\/div>\n
Tensions in the Air: NATO-Russian Aerial Intercepts Intensify Amid Escalation in Europe<\/a>\u00a0 ( CC0<\/a> \/ \/)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On June 21, a NATO F-16 fighter aircraft made an attempt to\u00a0approach the plane carrying Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over\u00a0neutral Baltic waters, but\u00a0was promptly chased away by\u00a0a Russian Su-27 fighter jet.Furthermore, Deinekin said that the number of\u00a0reconnaissance flights near\u00a0the Russian border is normal.<\/p>\n

“Taking into\u00a0account the size of\u00a0Russia\u2019s territory, it is quite normal,” he said.<\/p>\n

He added that Russian jets are scrambled each time when it is needed to\u00a0identify an object approaching the Russian border.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source:<\/strong> SPUTNIK Russia\u00a0News (sputniknews.com<\/a>) – 25 June 2017<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of reconnaissance aircraft intercepted along Russia\u2019s border from June 12-18 was unprecedented, even by Cold War standards, according to Russian military expert Konstantin Sivkov. NATO Steps Up Reconnaissance Near Russian Borders –...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,36,173,174,7],"tags":[381,250,195,1335,284,1363,69,1364,241,1423],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1299,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions\/1299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}